Managing Ovarian Cancer

The following is an abstract from an article published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynaecological cancer in Australia, and indeed most Western countries. In the absence of effective primary prevention strategies and screening for early disease, the best possible management of patients with suspected or established ovarian cancer assumes critical importance if inroads are to be made in reducing morbidity and mortality from this disease.

In this article published in the Medical Journal of Australia, the authors reviewed the management of women with ovarian cancer diagnosed in Victoria during the period of 1993 to 1995.

Researchers found that despite methodological difficulties with research of this type in terms of accurately defining variables such as stage and residual disease, the study is valuable for reflecting what actually happens in everyday clinical life. It shows that more than one in five patients did not undergo a laparotomy, which is required both to make a definitive diagnosis and to adequately stage the disease.

Furthermore, a large proportion of patients with this disease are treated by specialists who are not specifically trained in gynaecological oncology, or are treated outside major teaching institutions. This problem is by no means confined to Victoria or indeed Australia. In a recent review of patterns of care of patients with ovarian cancer in the United States, researchers found that, of 848 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer, only 333 (39.3%) were seen (not necessarily treated) by a gynaecological oncologist ‘at some time during their cancer diagnosis and/or treatment’.

Both studies clearly demonstrate that significant change is required if women with this kind of gynaecological cancer are to receive the best possible treatment.

(Source: eMJA)