NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Radiologists have developed a simplified ultrasound approach for assessing adnexal masses in women at average risk for ovarian cancer.
They found that separating isolated lesions into a classic category (simple cyst, hemorrhagic cyst, endometrioma, or dermoid) versus a nonclassic category (anything else, including multilocular cysts, mixed cystic and solid lesions, and predominantly solid lesions) yields high sensitivity and specificity for ovarian cancer - on par with other more complex ultrasound risk-stratification systems.
Pelvic ultrasound is the first-line imaging modality for assessing adnexal lesions, and existing risk-stratification systems can be complex and time-consuming to learn and use, the study team notes in Radiology.
The classic-versus-nonclassic approach to isolated adnexal lesions "could be helpful to radiologists in a busy clinical practice so that they can more quickly assess a lesion and recommend management," write Dr. Akshya Gupta of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and colleagues.
The researchers took a look back at 970 isolated adnexal lesions identified on ultrasound in 878 women at average risk for ovarian cancer (mean age, 42 years, no family history or genetic markers for ovarian cancer).
With classic lesions, the frequency of malignancy was less than 1%. Fifty-three of the 970 lesions (6%) were malignant.
