Transvaginal Ultrasonography as a Screening Method for Ovarian Cancer

November 12, 2025 updated by: John R van Nagell
This is a large, prospective, single-arm cohort study of transvaginal ultrasonographic screening for ovarian cancer in intermediate to high-risk women from Kentucky. Detection of ovarian malignancy often occurs subsequent to the initial transvaginal sonography (TVS) screen; therefore, it is important to offer continued screening to study participants based on our published algorithm. Screening will be available to participants for as long as they elect to receive it. The primary study endpoints are to determine if prospective serial transvaginal ultrasonography can decrease the false-positive (FP) percentage and improve the positive predictive value (PPV) as suggested by retrospective analysis without compromising the detection of true positives or promote the occurrence of false negatives.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Women from every Kentucky county participate in the Kentucky Ovarian Cancer Screening Program. Screening sites include: Maysville, Prestonsburg, Greenup, Elizabethtown, Somerset, Paducah and Lexington. Offsite participants account for 14% of the screening population with 86% being screened in Lexington. The long-term survival (20 year) of women with screen-detected ovarian cancers is twice that of unscreened women (65% vs 32%). Separation of cases into Type 1 and Type 2 ovarian cancer shows that screening improves the survival of both Type 1 and Type 2 ovarian cancers. Type 1 ovarian carcinomas for the screened and unscreened populations were defined based on these WHO criteria: mucinous carcinomas all grade, clear cell carcinomas all grades, endometrioid carcinomas grades 1 & 2, serous carcinomas grades 1 & 2, and malignant Brenner's tumors all grades. Type 2 ovarian carcinomas for the screened and unscreened populations were defined based on these criteria: undifferentiated carcinomas, endometrioid carcinomas grade 3, serous carcinomas grade 3, and carcinosarcomas.

While long-term 20-year survival of women with Type 1 ovarian cancers detected by screening was significantly better than for unscreened women (81% v 46%, respectively), the survival benefit was even more pronounced for Type 2 ovarian cancers detected by screening of Kentucky women compared to unscreened Kentucky women (55.7% vs. 0.3%, respectively) or unscreened women at UK Hospital (12%). Screen-detected cases of Type 2 invasive ovarian cancers had better survival than unscreened cases when those detected had early- or late-stage disease. However, better survival was achieved when Type 2 ovarian cancers were detected at an early (72%) compared to late-stage (46%). Our data support the effectiveness of the screening protocol at the University of Kentucky, and subsequent treatment in accordance with National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines.

The significance of these findings is that our approach has resulted in the detection of both early-stage Type 1 and Type 2 ovarian cancers and these cases have had improved survival when compared to that of unscreened cases, indicating that the screen-detected cases are associated with a potential survival advantage even for aggressive ovarian carcinomas.

The primary objective of this study is to prospectively evaluate the false positive (FP) percentage generated by the ovarian screening algorithm and determine whether serial transvaginal ultrasonography can lower the FP percentage as demonstrated in the retrospective analysis. The aim of serial ultrasonography is to decrease FP percentage to 0.32% (positive predictive value of 24%) without adversely impacting the results for true positives and false negatives. on a "per woman screened basis" since this corresponds to a minimally acceptable positive predictive value of 24% or higher. This assumes an average of three screening years for each new woman entering the program.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

65000

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Kentucky
      • Lexington, Kentucky, United States, 40536
        • Recruiting
        • Markey Cancer Center
        • Contact:
          • John R Van Nagell
        • Principal Investigator:
          • John Villano, MD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

24 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • women over the age of 50 years;
  • women with a documented family history of ovarian cancer over the age of 24 years;
  • women over the age of 24 years with a personal history of breast cancer
  • ECOG performance status of 0 to 2.34
  • Subjects having undergone prior hysterectomy will be eligible provided that they meet the other requirements for entry into this study and have at least one ovary.
  • Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Women who are referred with pelvic symptoms, a known pelvic mass or a history of prior radiation.
  • Individuals that cannot safely receive transvaginal ultrasound due to vaginal size, vaginal infections, lack of bowel or bladder control or inability to physically place their body in position to receive transvaginal ultrasound
  • Prisoners
  • Pregnant women
  • Women with a prior history of ovarian cancer
  • Exclusions will apply to anyone who presents with factors or issues that prevent them from understanding the screening research procedures or completing the informed consent component or personal information needed for the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Screening
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Participants in the Kentucky Ovarian Cancer Screening Program
Participants from the Kentucky Ovarian Cancer Screening Program who choose to participate in this trial will undergo further serial transvaginal ultrasonography (TVS) screening.
Procedure: Serial Transvaginal Ultrasonography
Participants will undergo transvaginal ultrasonography (TVS) to detect ovarian cancer as part of the Kentucky Ovarian Cancer Screening Program. Those with normal findings will repeat the TVS in one year. Those with abnormal results will repeat the screening in 4-6 weeks.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
False-positive (FP) percentage
Time Frame: approximately 3 years
Measure the false-positive (FP) rate generated by the ovarian screening algorithm.
approximately 3 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

John R van Nagell

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: John R Van Nagell, MD, University of Kentucky

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

December 19, 1988

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 13, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 13, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

July 16, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

November 14, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 12, 2025

Last Verified

November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MCC-88-GYN-13

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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