New NHS algorithm gives lifeline for women torn between surgery and cancer risk

The new Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm (ROCA) offers a bespoke risk assessment for high-risk women, giving their doctors more accurate sets of data to be able to advise on an individual basis.

This is a really positive story of technology improving women’s health.

Women found with BRCA 1 and 2 gene mutations are at significantly higher risk of ovarian cancer. Currently, NHS guidelines say women with these mutations can have surgery to remove their ovaries and fallopian tubes – leaving women with the choice of significant preventative surgery or waiting and risking cancer.

For many younger women this decision has huge ramifications on fertility and whether they can have children at all. Even for women who have completed their family, choosing to have a hysterectomy is a huge decision. The surgery removes their ovaries and puts them into menopause, and the surgery itself is of course not without risk.

The algorithm monitors changes in the level of the protein cancer antigen 125 (CA 125) in their blood. This tells the women and their doctors when the risk of waiting is outweighed by chance of cancer developing. Levels are observed over time and the algorithm can pick up when changes are happening in individual cases.

This new surveillance test gives women much more accurate and bespoke information with which to make an informed choice. Furthermore, it has shown to halve the number of ovarian cancer cases being diagnosed at the most advanced stage.

Currently, the test is only being used at University College London Hospital, but it is hoped this will be rolled out nationally. As it stands surveillance testing is a postcode lottery, varying wildly across the country.

I am delighted that technology has been able to afford women a greater degree of control and choice over their healthcare. This is a fantastic example of using the emerging world of AI and technology to do good and benefit women’s health.