A new blood test for ovarian cancer proved to be 86% accurate

The test works by tracking the changes in the protein levels of the blood. The traditional test is less than 50% accurate, so this is a major discovery.

86% of the women tested were successfully diagnosed with invasive epithelial ovarian cancer.

The research has been going on for 14 years in the UK, led by the UCL (University College London).

202.638 women have participated in the project. 46.232 of them continued to regularly have check-ups.

“There is currently no national screening program for ovarian cancer, as research to date has been unable to provide enough evidence that any one method would improve early detection of tumors […] These results are therefore very encouraging. They show that use of an early detection strategy based on an individual’s CA125 (Cancer Antigen 125) profile significantly improved cancer detection compared to what we’ve seen in previous screening trials.” – Professor Usha Menon, UCL trial coordinator, for The Guardian.

Ovarian cancer is really hard to diagnose at an early stage, the news usually comes when it’s already too late. The researchers at the UCL know that successfully managing to predict individual risk of developing ovarian cancer is vital. Tracking the changes in the CA125 protein levels could provide an early signal for detecting tumors, therefore saving thousands of lives.