A blood test that can detect ovarian cancer could spare thousands of women from unnecessary surgery, researchers hope.
Women with ovarian cysts or cancer symptoms, such as bloating, are often forced to go under the knife to help doctors spot any tumours.
Researchers claim that for every one cancer case that is detected, five women are operated on, putting them at risk of pain, infection and blood loss.
The new test, developed by scientists in Sweden, searches the blood for 11 proteins that are higher in women with malignant ovarian masses.
Charities say further trials are needed to confirm the test is accurate, saying it would represent 'a major breakthrough' if it is.
Researchers at Uppsala University, behind the test, hope it could one day be used as part of a routine ovarian cancer screening programme.
Early detection of ovarian cancer is considered to be the 'holy grail', and scientists around the world are trying to find an effective method.
A blood test that detects ovarian cancer could save women from unnecessary surgery (stock)
'Our results are promising enough to consider screening for early discovery of ovarian cancer,' lead author Professor Ulf Gyllensten said.
'In Sweden, we have long experience of screening for cervical cancer. I see great prospects of developing a strategy for screening for ovarian cancer as well.'
He said such a programme could 'save lives and minimise the need for surgery to rule out cancer'.
The blood test was tried on plasma samples taken from 90 women with the disease and 79 without. It was then repeated three times.
It compared circulating levels of 593 proteins between women with ovarian cancer, benign tumours or no sign of the disease.
Results found the test distinguished between women with the disease and those without up to 93 per cent of the time.
The researchers, writing in the journal Communications Biology, found quantities of 11 proteins were higher in patients with cancer.
Results revealed it had a sensitivity of 85 per cent, which measures the probability of a test identifying cases.
It also had a specificity, which describes a test's ability to pick up non-cases, of 93 per cent.
Ovarian cancer affects 7,300 new women every year in the UK, Target Ovarian Cancer statistics show.
And in the US, around 22,530 women are expected to be diagnosed in 2019, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Ovarian cancer's vague symptoms, such as feeling full quickly, are difficult to diagnose and mean the disease is often only spotted once it is advanced.
About 80 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed in the advanced stages of the disease.
At the time of diagnosis, 60 percent of ovarian cancers will have already spread to other parts of the body, bringing the five-year survival rate down to 30 percent from 90 percent in the earliest stage.
It's diagnosed so late because its location in the pelvis, according to Dr Ronny Drapkin, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who's been studying the disease for more than two decades.
'The pelvis is like a bowl, so a tumor there can grow quite large before it actually becomes noticeable,' Dr Drapkin told Daily Mail Online.
The first symptoms to arise with ovarian cancer are gastrointestinal because tumors can start to press upward.
When a patient complains of gastrointestinal
