TWO hospitals are taking part in a study that could lead to a national screening programme for ovarian cancer.

The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead, are among 13 UK centres to take part in the study.

More than 50,000 women across the UK have been recruited to a Government-backed study, which should determine if ovarian cancer screening saves lives.

The two hospitals plan to contact women aged 50 to 74 to invite them to take part in the study, which is being co-ordinated by a research team at Barts hospital and the London, Queen Mary's school of medicine, in London.

It will involve an ultrasound scan to assess the size and texture of the ovaries, and a blood test to measure an antioxidant that is released into the blood by ovarian cancer cells.

The purpose of the study is to find out if screening will detect ovarian cancer at an early stage when treatment is more effective.

It is on target to recruit 200,000 women by 2005, making it the largest study into ovarian cancer in the world.

Each year almost 7,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with cancer of the ovary and more than 4,000 die from the disease.

It is the fourth largest cancer killer of women in the UK, and the most common cause of death from gynaecological cancer in the West.

UKCTOS (UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Screening) was launched in 2000 to determine how many deaths would be prevented if a national screening programme was introduced, as it has been for breast and cervical cancers.