An ultrasound test can identify 96% of ovarian cancers in postmenopausal women, researchers have reported.
The test showed higher sensitivity for flagging the disease than the standard of care, wrote a team led by Sudha Sundard, MD, of the University of Birmingham in the U.K. The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and published September 30 in Lancet Oncology.
"Early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is vital, and we are pleased to see this research demonstrate that there are more accurate ways of using ultrasound," Sundard and colleagues said in a statement released by the university. "The faster and earlier ovarian cancer is diagnosed the easier it is to treat and the more successful the outcomes."
Sundard's group investigated six diagnostic tests for identifying ovarian cancer. The team determined that a model called IOTA (International Ovarian Tumour Analysis) ADNEX (Assessment of Different NEoplasias in the adneXa) -- which evaluates ultrasound features -- had the best accuracy for this purpose, identifying 96% of ovarian cancer cases in the study cohort.
"The ultrasound test outperforms the current standard of care in the U.K. significantly and so we recommend that the IOTA ultrasound ADNEX model should replace the current standard of care test called risk of malignancy in the U.K. which identifies 83% of ovarian cancers," the group said in the statement.
The complete study can be found here.
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