Hope in cancer study

Jul 10 2002 By Helen Harper, Bangor And Anglesey Mail

THE North West Wales NHS Trust is one of only 12 centres in the UK to be chosen to take part in a nationwide research project to assess whether screening for ovarian cancer can save lives.

The study, which will take 10 years to complete, will include women from all over North Wales.

Women aged between 50 and 74 will be chosen at random and will receive a postal invitation to take part in the project.

Those who accept the invitation will be asked to attend a recruitment visit, where they will be given more information about the scheme.

The recruitment process will last for three years.

Simon Leeson, a consultant gynaecologist at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, explained: "Cancer of the ovary is difficult to treat and is responsible for the deaths of over 4,000 women every year in the UK.

"The majority of women who develop this cancer have few symptoms until it has spread outside the ovaries, however by then the cancer is much more difficult to treat.

"The purpose of this study is to determine whether the screening will detect ovarian cancer at an early stage when treatment is more effective, and therefore reduce the number of deaths due to disease."

Throughout Britain, about 200,000 women are expected to participate in the trial, and they will be randomly placed in one of three groups.

The first group, of about 25 per cent of the women, will receive a form of ultrasound screening to check for any enlargement or abnormality of the ovaries.

A second group, made up of another 25 per cent, will receive multimodal screening, which is a blood test to measure a substance called CA125 which is released in increasing quantities into the blood of women with ovarian cancer.

The remaining women will be a control group who will not be screened, but will be asked to fill in a questionnaire at the start of the study.

The women who receive screening may be asked to see a gynaecologist should their screen be abnormal.

Mr Leeson continued: "Those in the screening part will undergo annual screening for a total for six screens, and the results will help to decide whether the NHS should start screening for ovarian cancers as it does for cervix and breast cancer."

The research will initially be based at Llandudno General Hospital, and the project, on a national level, will be managed centrally by the Gynaecology Oncology Unit of St Bartholomew's Hospital in London.

Women awaiting the study are urged not to phone in and ask when their turn is, as they will be invited in due course.