In the News

To prevent ovarian cancer, women should consider prophylactic removal of fallopian tubes at the same time as other pelvic surgery once they are finished having children, according to new recommendations from the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance. Ovarian cancer remains stubbornly resistant to early diagnosis. Currently, there is no effective screening test for women at average risk and symptoms don't appear until an average of 18 months after the cancer develops. Neither screening with a cancer antigen 125 blood test or a pelvic ultrasound has been found to lower ovarian cancer mortality. Complicating the matter further, early diagnosis doesn't often affect mortality, with some women diagnosed in stage I or II dying of the disease. That is why, in a new consensus statement, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance is recommending that women having pelvic surgery who don't plan on having children in the future, have their fallopian tubes removed, a procedure known as a bilateral salpingectomy. Most aggressive ovarian cancers start in the fallopian tubes, not the ovaries. The procedure is low risk and, since the ovaries are left intact, there is no effect on hormone levels.