OC191: Early diagnosis in ovarian cancer: Role of transvaginal color Doppler ultrasound. A nine years experience

Abstract

Ovarian cancer mortality remains high mainly due to late diagnosis. Since 1999 we have performed color doppler transvaginal (CDTV) ultrasound as a form of screening for ovarian cancer. The purpose of this paper is to assess the efficiency of CDTV ultrasound to detect early stages of ovarian cancer. Screening CDTV ultrasound has been annually performed in asymptomatic women without a family history of ovarian cancer. When abnormalities were detected, the procedure was repeated after 4–6 weeks. If the findings remitted, the study was repeated after one year. If the abnormality persisted, the study was complemented with tumor markers, CT scan and laparoscopy. A total of 112.190 screening CDTV ultrasound were performed. In 34patients a malignant tumor was diagnosed and histologically confirmed, fifteen of them being borderline lesions. Twenty two of 34 patients (67.6%) had normal levels of CA 125. The mean age of these patients was 45.7 years ( ± 13.5). Twenty-five of these tumors (73.5%) were in stage I, 1 in stage II, 7 in stage IIIc and one was a metastatic melanoma. Although consensus about the benefits of transvaginal ultrasound as a screening procedure is not unanimous, our data suggest that tumors detected in patients screened with transvaginal ultrasound are in earlier stages. Additional randomized studies are needed to support these preliminary findings.