Purpose: This review presents the current knowledge on ovarian cancer screening (OCS) together with a cumulative evaluation of the efficacy across diverse screening approaches based on up-to-date results.
Materials and methods: An electronic literature search was conducted targeting reports on the effectiveness of the various screening strategies.
Results: Twenty-two prospective studies, 18 cohorts and 4 randomised control trials (RCTs) were retrieved. Where possible, sensitivity, specificity and predictive values, as well as the number needed to treat for each cancer (NNT) and each stage I disease [NNT (I)] detected are reported.
Conclusion: The multimodal approach that incorporates CA125 as a primary and ultrasound as a secondary test appears to be superior to other strategies. However, the conclusive end-point that would provide the acceptable level of evidence for the introduction of screening should be a reduction in mortality. Up-to-date, there is no such evidence to justify this.