Ovarian Cancer Screening in Kentucky

The University of Kentucky Ovarian Cancer Screening Program provided free sonographic screening to 15,716 Kentucky women during the present year. Since its beginning in 1987, this program has screened over 39,158 new patients, provided 219,652 free screens and has follow-up data on 208,293 screening years. In addition, the program has provided educational materials concerning the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer to all participants. To date, we have detected 83 malignancies in women who were entirely symptom free. Most important, the 5-year survival of women whose ovarian cancer was detected by screening is 84.6 per cent or about twice as high as that of women who did not have screening. During the present year, we have maintained outreach screening at five sites -Elizabethtown, Prestonsburg, Maysville, Somerset, and Paducah. Space for screening at these sites has been provided by the Hardin, Floyd, Mason, Pulaski, and McCracken County Health Departments. The personnel required to perform screening has been provided by this program. Outreach screening is provided five times per month at Hardin County, six times per month at McCracken County, four times per month at Pulaski County, two times per month at Floyd County, and twice monthly at Mason County. This program employs 5 full-time ultrasound sonographers who perform screening, and one project coordinator for screening at the five outreach sites. The Medical Director of the University of Kentucky Ovarian Cancer Screening Program is John R. van Nagell, M.D., the Administrative Director is Margaret Hall, and the Research Director is Dr. Ed Pavlik. We have provided an educational program for Ultrasound Student Technicians concerning early detection of ovarian tumors, and ten students have successfully completed the program. It is estimated that we will provide training for 3 ultrasound students this year. Likewise, we are providing screening ultrasound education and training to all physicians in the Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship Program at the University of Kentucky. This program is 3 years in length and provides subspecialty training to physician specialists in women's cancer care. During the fiscal year 2009-2010, we received $200,000 to help defray the cost of serum Ca-125 (a biomarker for ovarian cancer) in women with a known ovarian tumor on ultrasound. Analysis of the level of Ca-125 is helpful in determining the risk of malignancy in ovarian tumors.