Major ovarian cancer screening trial fails to reduce deaths
pharmafile | May 14, 2021 | News story | Medical Communications |
A major trial involving 200,000 women to detect ovarian cancer has failed to save lives after two decades of work.
The trial, which set out to detect ovarian cancer, one of the most elusive and deadly cancers, initially looked promising, with annual blood tests detecting cases of the cancer earlier.
However, routine screening for the cancer is unlikely for at least a decade. The researchers at University College London said the results were a disappointment but thanked the 200,000 people who took part in the 16-year study.
The UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening – the largest in the world – tracked levels of CA125, a chemical released by ovarian tumours, in the blood and sent participants in whom they were rising for an ultrasound scan.
This led to 39% more stage-one or two cases of cancer being detected and 10% fewer stage-three or four cases.
However, the end results of the trial, published in the Lancet medical journal, found that the screening did not manage to save lives.
The trial’s lead investigator Professor Usha Menon told BBC News: “I was hoping there’d be something in this – it is disappointing news.
“It is about not giving up at this point – we have suffered a setback and need to get up and march forward again.”
There was some evidence to suggest that the cases discovered earlier than usual were still very aggressive and difficult to treat. Researchers say they may need to detect cancers even earlier, and in more woman to have an impact on survival rates.
In the hope to detect cervical cancer, scientists are looking at different chemicals in the blood, fragments of DNA released by tumours, and exosomes microscopic fatty spheres break off cancerous cells.
Though this offers some hope, this research would have to undertake the same long-term and large-scale trials.
Professor Ian Jacobs from the University of New South Wales told the BBC, “Realistically, this means we have to reluctantly accept that population screening for ovarian cancer is more than a decade away.
“This is deeply disappointing and frustrating given the hope of all involved that we would save the lives of thousands of women.”
Ovarian cancer is notoriously tricky to diagnose because the symptoms are often confused with and mistaken for less serious health problems, two out of every three patients die within a decade of their diagnosis.
These symptoms can include feeling bloated, a swollen or painful stomach, quickly feeling full when eating, and needing to urinate more frequently than usual.
Professor Menon said: “Some women are diagnosed so late they are too sick to start treatment.”
Roughly 4,000 people die from ovarian cancer every year in the UK.
Cancer Research UK Chief Executive Michelle Mitchell said: “Symptoms of ovarian cancer can be quite vague [so] whether it’s needing to go to the toilet more often, pain, bloating or something else, raise it with your GP.”
“In most cases it won’t be cancer – but it’s best to get it checked out.”
Lilly Subbotin
