Epithelial Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death among gynaecologic malignancies in western civilized countries, with an estimated prevalence in Europe and the US of 752,600 in 2007 and 59,828 deaths annually. Treatment and survival of the patients depend primarily on the stage of the disease. Of all EOC patients only 25% are diagnosed at an early stage while the tumour is confined to the pelvis. In these cases the five-year survival rate is 80% to 90% and the disease can often be cured by the combination of surgery and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, almost 75% of women affected have advanced stage disease with metastatic spread throughout the abdominal cavity or to retroperitoneal lymph nodes at the time of diagnosis; five-year survival rates drop to 10%-30% for advanced disease, despite maximum surgical effort and combination chemotherapy.
State-of-the-art diagnostic tests for EOC include transvaginal ultrasonography and serum cancer antigen (CA-125) measurements; the specificity of these diagnostic tools however is low, and both tests are not effective enough at detecting EOC early enough to improve clinical outcomes. Definitive diagnosis of EOC still relies on histological or cytological confirmation. These findings underline the importance for an effective test for early detection of EOC.
In the current project we will obtain a lavage of the uterine cavity. It will be investigated whether cells from EOCs or genetic material from those cells can be detected in the lavage fluid.
Aim of this study:
There is a clear clinical need for a diagnosis test to detect EOC at an earlier stage.
