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New Cancer Scan May Improve Ovarian Cancer Surgery Selection

Could A New Cancer Scan Help Doctors Better Select Ovarian Cancer Patients For Surgery? · NDTV

Ovarian cancer can spread across the lining inside the belly.

Doctors need to know how much cancer has spread before choosing surgery or chemotherapy.

A newer scan called FAPI PET/CT may show these cancer deposits more clearly than a regular contrast CT scan.

In a study of 200 women in Bengaluru, FAPI PET/CT found more of the cancer that surgeons later saw during operations.

It was especially helpful in difficult-to-see areas such as the upper abdomen and around the bowel.

Regular CT was better at confirming when cancer was not present.

The new scan might help doctors decide who is most likely to benefit from surgery first.

However, it has not yet been proven to prevent unnecessary operations and still needs to be studied in larger groups.

Key facts

Study participants: 200 women with epithelial ovarian cancer
FAPI PET sensitivity: 81.8% for detecting peritoneal disease
CT sensitivity: 54.6% for detecting peritoneal disease
FAPI PET accuracy: 86% overall diagnostic accuracy
CT accuracy: 78% overall diagnostic accuracy
Upper-abdomen sensitivity: 76.5% for FAPI PET compared with 23.5% for CT
Study limitations: The research was conducted at one centre, used surgical assessment rather than final pathology as its reference standard, and mostly involved patients who had received chemotherapy.

NDTV · 1 hr ago