The results published in this report reflect analysis of the initial baseline screenings for women enrolled between 1993 and 2001. The results of subsequent years screening with TVU and CA-125 are not yet available, and it is these additional results that will ultimately determine whether this screening strategy is effective in reducing mortality from ovarian cancer. These results will not be available for several years.

At the time of the baseline examination, both TVU and CA-125 had low predictive values -- a measure of how likely a person with a positive test result is to have the disease of interest -- when used to screen healthy women for ovarian cancer. Many investigators feel that an acceptable predictive value for an ovarian cancer screening test is around 10 percent. The predictive values of these screening tests were 3.7 percent for an abnormal CA-125 test, 1 percent for an abnormal TVU, and 23.5 percent if both tests were abnormal. Although having an abnormality in both tests had a fairly high predictive value, only 9 of the 29 tumors (31 percent) were associated with abnormalities in both tests.


Patricia Hartge, Sc.D., a NCI investigator on the PLCO project, added, "As women are followed for a longer period of time, it will be possible to examine how screening tests behave in special groups of women; for example, those with breast or ovarian cancer in their family." Investigators will also be able to study whether other biological markers which are proposed but unconfirmed are useful for early detection of ovarian cancer.

The PLCO is currently scheduled to collect data until 2008.

To view a fact sheet on the PLCO Cancer Screening Trial, please visit www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Detection/PLCOOvarianFactSheet..

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