Ovarian cancer is the most letal gynecologic tumor, the 5-year survival is less than 40%. The main reason is the advanced stage at the moment of the diagnosis. In these cases the therapeutic options, citorreductive surgery and chemotherapy, are not completely effective. On the other hand, 5-year survival for early stage ovarian cancer is higher than 90%, and most of the times the surgery is the only treatment needed. However, because of the low prevalence of ovarian cancer in the general population, even tests with high specificity present many false positive results and eventually an increase in surgical procedures to investigate asymptomatic adnexal masses. Based on these facts the search for methods and strategies to diagnose early stage ovarian cancer and at the same time to avoid unnecessary surgical interventions are essential. In this article, the bases and possible consequences of strategies for ovarian cancer screening were reviewed. The most important methods avaliable and the results of some trials are evaluated.
Ovarian neoplasms; Tumor makers, biological; CA-125 antigen