Blood test may detect ovarian cancer in earliest stages

Researchers are exploring a new strategy that would allow a blood test as a screening tool for ovarian cancer in healthy women.

A 11-year study of 4,051 women, carried at the University of Texas MD Anderson cancer centre in Houston, found that a blood test could function as a screening tool for healthy women.

The test measured raised levels of a protein called CA125, The Guardian reports.

As well as the test, women suspected of being at risk underwent an internal ultrasound to detect ovarian tumours.

Ovarian cancer is difficult to detect because it has very few symptoms, and the results offer new hope for early screening.

Read the results of the Houston trial, published in American Cancer Society Journal, Cancer, here.