For Physicians. By Physicians.
For Physicians. By Physicians.
Epithelial ovarian cancer is generally detected late, with overall five year survival of 20-30%. The search for a cheap, accurate screening test to identify the disease in its early stage has been ongoing for the past few decades. Currently, there is no proven strategy for the early detection of cancer that decreases ovarian cancer mortality.
In the most recent joint Committee Opinion, ACOG and SGO makes the following statement regarding direct-to-consumer marketing of ovarian cancer screening tests
At this time, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of any of these tests or algorithms for the early detection of ovarian cancer in average-risk women. Women considering purchasing these tests, which are currently not approved nor cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for ovarian cancer screening and are not financially covered by medical insurance, should be counseled on the risks of such tests.
Although ovarian cancer has been described as “silent”, it is not uncommon for women with the disease to have abdominal symptoms. Persistent and progressive bloating, abdominal/pelvic pain, early satiety, appetite loss, urinary urgency, increased abdominal girth should be evaluated with a high index of suspicion for malignancy.
When a pelvic mass has been identified on examination and imaging, consider referral to or consultation with a gynecologic oncologist when
ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 174: Evaluation and management of adnexal masses
SGO: Ovarian Cancer Screening and Symptom Awareness Consensus Statement
Please log in to ObGFirst to access this page
OBG Project CME requires a modern web browser (Internet Explorer 10+, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge). Certain educational activities may require additional software to view multimedia, presentation, or printable versions of their content. These activities will be marked as such and will provide links to the required software. That software may be: Adobe Flash, Apple QuickTime, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft PowerPoint, Windows Media Player, or Real Networks Real One Player.
This educational activity may contain discussion of published and/or investigational uses of agents that are not indicated by the FDA. The planners of this activity do not recommend the use of any agent outside of the labeled indications.
The opinions expressed in the educational activity are those of the faculty and do not necessarily represent the views of the planners. Please refer to the official prescribing information for each product for discussion of approved indications, contraindications, and warnings.
Participants have an implied responsibility to use the newly acquired information to enhance patient outcomes and their own professional development. The information
presented in this activity is not meant to serve as a guideline for patient management. Any procedures, medications, or other courses of diagnosis or treatment discussed or suggested in this activity should not be used by clinicians without evaluation of their patient’s conditions and possible contraindications and/or dangers in use, review of any applicable manufacturer’s product information, and comparison with recommendations of other authorities.
Jointly provided by
