A new screening strategy for ovarian cancer that detects the disease before it becomes fatal is being worked on by researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, according to a report released Thursday.
The researchers tested the potential of a two-stage ovarian cancer screening strategy that incorporates changes in a blood protein called CA125 - a known tumor maker.
Researchers looked at women who had ovarian cancer and divided them into three groups: low, intermediate and high risk.
According to the report, the study found that 5.8 percent of women were of intermediate risk each year. This means that they should receive a CA125 test in three months.
The specificity of the test was 99.9 percent which means that only 0.1 percent of patients without ovarian cancer would be falsely identified as having the illness.
Researchers also noted that all the ovarian cancers were in the early stage.
If the test is verified in a clinical trial, it can potentially help save the lives of thousands of women each year in the United States alone.
The research was published in the Cancer Journal.
