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A blood test that detects ovarian cancer in its early stages may reduce the deadliness of the disease.

Ovarian cancer is known as the 鈥渟ilent killer鈥� because most patients don鈥檛 know they have it until it spreads to other organs and causes symptoms, at which point it is usually too late to treat.

Now, at University College London and his colleagues have shown that the disease can be detected years earlier by looking for tell-tale DNA fragments that ovarian tumours leak into the bloodstream.

By analysing DNA fragments in 648 blood samples from healthy women and ovarian cancer patients, they were able to pinpoint 3 fragments that marked the presence of the disease.

In a follow-up study of 250 women, they showed they could identify those with ovarian cancer with 91 per cent accuracy by measuring these 3 DNA fragments in their blood.

Finally, they showed that the new blood test could detect ovarian cancer 1 to 2 years before it is usually diagnosed in 88 per cent of cases. They did this by retrospectively analysing blood samples collected from over 100,000 women in a previous study, 43 of whom were diagnosed with ovarian cancer over the next 2 years.

The blood test has the potential to be used in population-wide screening for ovarian cancer, says Widschwendter. This may help prevent premature deaths, since ovarian cancer has a 90 per cent cure rate if it is found early and removed before it spreads.