"Screening women without clearly defined / recognized symptoms is not recommended by the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force because it results in unnecessary major surgery and has the potential to do more harm than good", says Dr Michel Roy of University of Laval. "In the DOVE trial we are working with women who have indications of OC to clearly profile a cluster of symptoms from the 70 or so non-specific symptoms that would identify women with a high likelihood of having the disease", adds Roy who is the president of the 'Regroupement des Gyncologues-Oncologues du Qubec'.

Dr Martin Dawes, Chair of Family Medicine at McGill, and director of Family Medicine at the MUHC explains, "The challenge for doctors who first see the patient is to identify those who do need urgent investigations from those who do not." The Dove study is designed to further ensure that the predictive tool we recommend to family doctors and general gynecologists profiles ovarian cancer as precisely as possible, so the system is neither swamped by over-investigating, nor is there undue delay in identifying women with cancer. "The only way to defeat this deadly disease is if primary, secondary and tertiary care services work as real partners', he emphasizes.

Epidemiologists, Dr.Marie-Elise Parent of Institut Armand-Frappier, University of Quebec, and Dr. James Hanley of McGill University will be instrumental in ensuring that the predictive tool is refined and tested in three phases to ensure that it profiles early ovarian cancer as precisely as possible. "In Phase I we will identify an accurate symptom profile and develop a reliable diagnostic tool to detect ovarian cancer. In phase II we will refine and validate this tool and by phase three, we will be able to take the prediction tool a
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Contact: Seeta Ramdass
seeta.ramdas@muhc.mcgill.ca
514-843-1560
McGill University
8-Jun-2006