Shanghai hospitals identify early markers for ovarian cancer, stepping-up early detection

Local hospitals have carried out a cohort study on ovarian cancer patients and their families, in order to identify patients with high risk earlier and look for effective biomarkers for quicker identification.

Whole-life management has also been established to provide genetic screening for ovarian cancer patients and their female relatives in order to provide more targeted direction for cancer prevention and control, and offer medical help to families with genetic mutation to have healthy children, experts said on Monday, the World Ovarian Cancer Day.

Free medical consultation and public education were launched to promote the knowledge of ovarian cancer at the Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, one of the first hospitals to launch regular and comprehensive ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment in the nation.

"We have established a network with participation of multiple departments to offer patients and their families consultation, genetic screening, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of ovarian cancer. We have also established a biological database for all the patients in order to look for useful biomarkers for the cancer, which so far has no effective tool for early detection," said Dr Wang Yu, president of the hospital.

Ovarian cancer is the most deadly female reproductive cancer.

About 70 percent of patients who get the diagnosis are already in the terminal stage, as there are no symptoms in the early stage and there is no effective tools for early detection. The overall five-year survival is lower than 50 percent. For those in the terminal stage, the five-year survival is less than 30 percent.

"Since about 20 to 25 percent of patients have a family history, we offer genetic screening and cohort study on each patient and their family in order to find measures for early identification for those with high risk or early stage of ovarian cancer," Wang said. "It is a very meaningful study for early detection and treatment of ovarian cancer."

（2023-05-08）