Scan detects womb cancer before symptoms arise

A scanning test for womb cancer detected early warning signs of the disease in eight out of ten women tested, a UK study found.

UK doctors used a transvaginal ultrasound (TVU) scan to screen nearly 37,000 post-menopausal women. TVU scans are usually performed on women who have abnormal bleeding. The scan measures the thickness of the lining of the womb - or endometrial thickness (ET) - and can also detect other abnormalities.

However, the researchers from University College London wanted to find out if the scan could detect early warning signs of womb cancer before typical symptoms of womb cancer - such as bleeding - appeared.

Within a year of screening, 133 of the women tested developed endometrial cancer. Eight out of ten of the women had an ET measurement of 5mm or greater. And most of the 36,731 women who did not have cancer had an ET of less than 5mm.

However, around 15 per cent of the women without cancer were also positive using this method of screening and required further tests to rule out the possibility of cancer.

Although the rate of "false positive" results may rule out the test for screening the entire population of women, the researchers suggested that TVU scans could be used on women at greater risk of developing womb cancer and on others already undergoing pelvic scans for other medical conditions.

This article was published on Mon 13 December 2010