In National Ovarian Cancer Month it is perhaps a good time to reflect on two important clinical trials that have recently been completed, both of which have been looking at screening for ovarian cancer. Here at Liverpool Women's we are proud to have been one of the recruiting centres for both the UKCTOCS and UKFOCSS trials which investigated the role of ovarian screening in post-menopausal women between 50 and 75 years of age and women at an increased risk of ovarian cancer.
These studies recruited over 200000 volunteers across the nation and over the last 10 years they have helped us with the largest studies into ovarian cancer screening that have ever been performed worldwide. Our volunteers have undergone screening by either blood tests, ultrasound scans or a combination of the two. The results of these trials are in their earliest stages of interpretation but do offer some hope that we may be able to one day be able to detect this disease at an earlier stage when the treatments we can offer may offer a substantially better out come for our patients.