OVARIAN-CANCER SCREENING

To reduce the mortality from ovarian cancer various studies by transva ginal color Doppler (TVCD) sonography and serum CA-125 tumor marker, a lone or in combination, have been performed. Relatively poor specifici ties of CA-125 and transvaginal conventional sonography can be improve d with the use of TVCD. Furthermore, high specificity can be achieved on screening asymptomatic postmenopausal women by combining serum CA-1 25 measurement with TVCD. Combining tests should not necessarily incre ase the overall cost of screening because of the expected decrease in the number of unnecessary surgical interventions. Until the results of large, prospective studies are available, the efficacy of potential t ests for screening of ovarian cancer will remain unproven and they sho uld not be used to screen apparently healthy women outside of scientif ic interest.