Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound Evaluation of Indeterminate Ovarian Lesions: Prospective Multicenter Study

About This Grant

Project Summary Ovarian cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in women. Unfortunately, nearly 75% of women are diagnosed with advanced disease, worsening prognosis and survival rates. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a widely recognized technique for improving vascular and oncologic ultrasound applications globally. This project introduces several groundbreaking advancements to ovarian cancer diagnosis: first prospective validation of CEUS biomarkers in ovarian cancer based on unique ability of CEUS to detect malignant neovascularity: addressing long-standing concern of variability of CEUS imaging by evaluating CEUS biomarkers reproducibility with consecutive injections and CEUS inter-reader reliability across blinded experts. The main technical innovation is the development of an innovative CEUS Quantitative Statistical Features to further improve categorization of indeterminate ovarian lesions. Once properly validated, CEUS is expected to improve patient outcomes by offering a viable tool for ovarian mass characterization, enabling earlier and more precise diagnosis of malignancy in our patients. CEUS represents a safer, less costly and more readily available technique for characterizing ovarian masses relative to the current clinical standard. Once properly validated, CEUS is expected to improve patient outcomes by offering a viable tool for ovarian mass characterization, enabling earlier and more precise diagnosis of malignancy in our patients as well as full integration of CEUS in future versions of O-RADS.