Results from The UK Collaborative Trial for Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) demonstrate that screening may reduce ovarian cancer mortality by an estimated 20% after a follow up period of up to 14 years.
The study authors are now planning to conduct three more years of follow up to establish the full impact of ovarian cancer screening.
“The evidence from UKCTOCS suggests that carefully conducted screening using a multimodal strategy detects ovarian cancer sufficiently early to alter the natural history of the disease and reduce mortality,” said co-principal investigator Professor Ian Jacobs, president and vice-chancellor of University of New South Wales Australia and Honorary Professor at University College London (UCL), who co-invented the Risk of Ovarian Cancer algorithm (ROCA) in 1996, which was used as part of the multimodal screening arm of this study.
“We are excited and encouraged by these results, demonstrating an estimated mortality reduction attributable to ovarian cancer screening of 15% to 28%. Further follow up in UKCTOCS will provide greater confidence about the precise reduction in mortality which is achievable.”
The UKCTOCS is a collaborative research initiative, coordinated by UCL, that involved 202,638 women; across 13 centres.
