Health chiefs advise huge ovarian cancer screening shake-up which could protect thousands of women who are currently excluded from life-saving check-ups
Health officials have proposed new age-based thresholds for ovarian cancer screening that could help identify women at highest risk of the disease earlier.
Previous tests for ovarian cancer included a blood test measuring cancer antigen 125 (CA125 levels); Women with levels of 35 IU/mL or above were referred for further investigation, regardless of their age.
But experts warned that this fixed-threshold approach could miss cancers in older women and also lead to unnecessary examinations in younger women.
In a draft update to its guidelines, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has proposed more personalized criteria to reflect how the risk of ovarian cancer changes as women get older.
He also recommends that those with persistent symptoms get an ultrasound, saying the CA125 test alone is not accurate enough to guide decisions for women under 40.
Eric Power, Deputy Director of the NICE Guidelines Centre, said: ‘The committee’s recommendations will enable more personalized, targeted testing so women at highest risk of ovarian cancer are identified and referred earlier.
‘This tailored approach will mean GPs can make more informed decisions about which patients need urgent examination, while also reducing unnecessary ultrasound scans and freeing up NHS resources.
‘These updates will ensure our guidance reflects the latest evidence and will help improve the detection of cancer and ensure those who need it receive rapid treatment.’
Health officials propose new age-based thresholds for ovarian cancer screening
The updated guidance also recommends that people aged 60 and over with unexplained weight loss (more than five per cent within six months) receive further investigation or be referred for suspected cancer.
This comes at a time when hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescriptions are on the rise in the UK, and has therefore called for more research into when unexpected bleeding while taking the drug should prompt investigation for endometrial cancer.
NICE guidance is used by GPs and other primary care professionals to determine whether patients with potential cancer symptoms should be referred to specialists for further examination.
It is estimated that there are more than 7,000 new cases of ovarian cancer in the UK each year and around 4,000 deaths from the disease.
Terminal cancer is known to be very difficult to diagnose because symptoms can be confused with less serious problems.
For this reason, only one in five patients can be diagnosed in the early stages, when the disease has not spread to other parts of the body, and the treatment is more likely to be successful.
93 percent of women diagnosed at this stage survive for more than five years, but this rate drops to only 13 percent when diagnosed at later stages.
Classic symptoms include bloating and pain in the stomach, pelvic pain, loss of appetite, feeling full quickly after eating, and a more urgent and frequent need to urinate.
Other symptoms include indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, back pain, constant fatigue, unintentional weight loss, and unusual bleeding from the vagina.
While any woman can get ovarian cancer, certain factors can increase any woman’s risk of developing this disease.
These include age (with the risk of ovarian cancer increasing as you get older) and family history of the disease.
The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes can both increase the risk of ovarian and breast cancer by more than 40 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
Endometriosis (a condition that causes uterine tissue to grow outside the uterus, causing painful periods and heavy bleeding) also increases the risk of the disease by fourfold.
Being overweight can increase your chances of developing the disease as well as cancer elsewhere in your body.
Ovarian cancer is caused by abnormal cells in the ovary, fallopian tube and peritoneum, which are all parts of the reproductive system, growing and dividing uncontrollably to form a tumor.
They can spread to surrounding organs and spread to other parts of the body, but treatment depends on the type of cells in which the cancer initially started.
Common treatment options for the disease include surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible, chemotherapy to shrink tumors, and hormone therapy.
