Ovarian cancer population screening did not cut deaths – study
Blood test (Simon Dawson/PA)
Regular screening for ovarian cancer at a population level did not reduce deaths from the disease, according to a large-scale UK trial.
The findings, published in the journal The Lancet, are based on data from more than 200,000 women who were followed up for 16 years.
Two screening methods were examined in the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS): a yearly ultrasound scan, or an annual blood test alongside the ultrasound scan – known as multimodal screening.
While multimodal testing picked up some cancer cases at an early stage, the researchers said neither screening method translated into more lives being saved.
May 12, 2021
A large-scale randomised trial of annual screening for ovarian cancer has failed to reduce deaths from the disease, despite one of the screening methods successfully detecting cancers earlier.
Results from the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) has been published in
The Lancet.
In the UK, 4,000 women die from ovarian cancer each year. It is not usually diagnosed until it is at a late stage and hard to treat. UKCTOCS was designed to test the hypothesis that a reliable screening method that picks up ovarian cancer earlier, when treatments are more likely to be effective, could save lives.
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