Early diagnostics and screening for ovarian cancer

Abstract

Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women. The overall 5-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is approximately 40% due to the fact that most cases are diagnosed at late stages. Detection of ovarian cancer at the earliest possible stages is a public health priority. The article provides a review of existing scientific data regarding the early detection and screening of ovarian cancer, based on an analysis of publications in international electronic databases. Screening strategies are most effective for detecting diseases in their early stages, but at the moment there is no standard instrumental method that could be recommended as a screening examination for detecting ovarian cancer at an early stage. In this regard, most researchers have switched to the field of biomarkers and their combinations. Currently, more than 200 tumor markers, which are produced with varying intensity in ovarian cancer, have been proposed, but only two of them, CA-125 and HE4, have been tested in clinical experience. The article highlights the role of new tumor markers, multimarker panels, longitudinal algorithms in the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Most of the studies on the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is aimed at searching for new biomarkers or developing multimodal algorithms that include both tumor markers, free deoxyribonucleic acid, and ultrasound of the pelvic organs. However, there are still no convincing data on mortality reduction based on randomized controlled trials, which stops doctors from including one or another strategy for the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer in national protocols and/or recommendations as a screening examination.