Screening tool for ovarian cancer under development

A team of researchers from Clemson University and Prisma Health–Upstate are working to create a screening process to catch ovarian cancer in the early or pre-cancerous stages. Their goal is to make this screening as simple and easy for women as getting a pap smear. The idea is to identify the pre-cancerous changes through the makeup of the cervical mucus. Dr. Larry Puls, the director of Gynecologic Oncology at Prisma Health Cancer Institute; Terri Bruce, director of the Clemson University Light Imaging Facility and research assistant professor of bioengineering, and Ken Marcus, professor of chemistry at Clemson and 2019 university Researcher of the Year, have been working together for more than a year to create this process. They are putting their screening tool to the test through trials. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is no simple, reliable way to screen for ovarian cancer, especially in women who do not show symptoms. Ovarian cancer is the fifth deadliest cancer for women, just behind pancreas, colon, breast and lung cancers according to the CDC. In 2015, the latest year for which data is available, nearly 14,000 women died of ovarian cancer in the United States, according to the CDC.