Ovarian screening doesn't cut death risk

SALT LAKE CITY, June 6 (UPI) -- Women who received ovarian cancer screening did not have a reduced risk of death compared to women who had usual care, U.S. researchers say.

Dr. Saundra S. Buys of the University of Utah Health Sciences Center in Salt Lake City and colleagues examined the ovarian cancer-specific mortality results from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.

The randomized controlled trial involved 78,216 women ages 55-74. Half were assigned to undergo annual screening and half were assigned to usual care at 10 U.S. screening centers from November 1993 to July 2001.

The group that was screened was offered annual screening with transvaginal ultrasound and serum cancer antigen 125for six years and transvaginal ultrasound for four years. Participants were tracked for a maximum of 13 years for cancer diagnoses and death until Feb. 28, 2010.

"All-cause mortality -- excluding deaths from ovarian, colorectal and lung cancer -- was similar in the 2 study groups; there were 2,924 deaths in the intervention group and 2,914 deaths in the usual care group," the study authors say in a statement. "Mortality rates for the major causes of death were generally similar between the 2 study groups."

The finding are scheduled to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.