Ovarian cancer has a low survival rate with the disease most often detected in advanced stages. Women at high risk may choose risk‐reducing salpingo‐oophorectomy with its associated clinical costs, because of the lack of known effective screening. The optimum screening test to improve the early detection of ovarian cancer and hopefully reduce mortality is an area of active research. Screening for the early detection of ovarian cancer presents challenges. The validity of the test is critical and requires high sensitivity and specificity to be effective, especially when applying the testing the general population. The low prevalence in the general population results in low positive predictive values even for tests with high sensitivity and specificity. Applying to high risk populations improves the predictive value, but reduces the overall sensitivity of any overall screening program. The recent developments in biomarkers for ovarian cancer will be reviewed and their potential applications in screening programs.

Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(1 Suppl):CN02-03.

Copyright © January 7, 2010, American Association for Cancer Research
2010