How To Detect Ovarian Cancer

Main Category: Ovarian Cancer
Article Date: 24 Jul 2004 - 18:00 PDT

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The sooner ovarian cancer is found and treated, the better a woman's chance for recovery. But ovarian cancer is hard to detect early, especially in the early stages. Some of the more common methods used to screen for ovarian cancer include the following:

-- Pelvic and rectal examination: The pelvic and rectal examination includes feeling the uterus, and ovaries to find any abnormality in their shape or size. Even though rectovaginal examination is unlikely to detect early stage ovarian cancer, the rectovaginal examination is incorporated into most ovarian cancer screening programs as part of a multimodal approach to screening.

-- Ultrasound: Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to create pictures of the area being examined. Healthy tissues, fluid-filled cysts, and tumors look different on this picture. Ultrasound may be performed vaginally or abdominally. Ultrasound has demonstrated value in detecting ovarian malignancies in asymptomatic women although its accuracy in detecting early stage disease is poor.

-- CA-125: The CA125 blood test is used to measure the level of CA-125. Elevated levels of CA125 are often in higher-than-normal amounts in the blood of women with ovarian cancer. Overall, more than 80 percent of women with advanced ovarian cancer will have an elevated CA125 level (greater than 35 u/ml), yet the test is not useful in detecting early stage disease (approximately 50% accurate). Unfortunately CA125 is even less reliable for detecting cancer in pre-menopausal women since it is frequently elevated by non-cancerous conditions such as pregnancy, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, liver disease, and benign ovarian cysts. Most gynecologic oncologists employ CA125 for surveillance of ovarian cancer after the diagnosis has been surgically confirmed since it is a sensitive indicator of persistent or recurrent disease.

How to detect it...

What are some diagnostic tests that can be used to detect ovarian cancer? CONTINUES......www.ovarian.org/pages.asp?page=detection