Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Double Detection
13 October 2015

Double Detection

Ovarian cancer often goes undetected until it has spread to other parts of the body and becomes difficult to treat with surgery and chemotherapy. This is largely because there’s no national screening programme to diagnose the disease at its earliest stage when it is most curable. But, a new non-invasive method tested in the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) can detect almost twice as many incidents of cancer as conventional strategies. The new technique takes measurements of a biomarker – a specific protein released by ovarian cancer cells (blue and pink cells shown) – from a series of blood samples and interprets its change over time to more accurately predict a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer. However, the more important question of whether the cancers detected were caught early enough to save lives will depend on the final analysis of the trial, due out later this year.

Written by Kevin Pollock

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.