Ovarian cancer news and policy developments

Ovarian cancer - key facts

The following are some useful facts that may help you when talking with your MP

In 2007, there were approximately 6,270 new cases of ovarian cancer in the UK - it is the fifth most common cancer among women in the UK
Five-year survival for ovarian cancer in England is low compared to other cancers. Around 37% of women with ovarian cancer survived for five years or more in 2007
Around 65% of women with ovarian cancer in England survived for at least one year in 2007
Late diagnosis is an important factor in low survival rates for women with ovarian cancer. Nearly 30% of ovarian cancer patients were diagnosed in an emergency setting in England (2007)
Access to the most common treatment for ovarian cancer (paclitaxel) is low compared to comparable countries across the world. The UK was ranked 13th out of 14 comparable countries in a recent study
On average, there is one clinical nurse specialist (CNS) for 90 gynaecological cancer patients. This varies widely across the country from 35 to 135 patients per CNS)

Latest news on ovarian cancer
Early diagnosis

There have been a number of encouraging developments which may help to improve early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

Experts have agreed that there are a number of symptoms that could indicate that a woman has ovarian cancer. These include:
1. persistent pelvic and abdominal pain
2. increased abdominal size/persistent bloating - not bloating that comes and goes
3. difficulty eating and feeling full quickly
Early diagnosis has been included in new measures to assess improvements in cancer survival ,
GPs will now be able to access diagnostic tests (ultrasound and CA125) for ovarian cancer more easily, which could speed up diagnosis
A trial looking into ovarian cancer screening is due to finish around 2015, and its findings will be considered by the UK National Screening Centre

Ensuring high quality ovarian cancer service standards
A guideline on the management of ovarian cancer has been developed by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). This will provide important guidance on how ovarian cancer services should be structured. Also, a 'quality standard' for ovarian cancer is due to be developed in 2011. This will set out what good ovarian cancer treatment and support looks like and will help support GP consortia when they are responsible for commissioning ovarian cancer services.

Ensuring access to the best treatment
A report called "Extent and causes of international variations in drug usage" found that the use of medicines for ovarian cancer was lower in the UK than among comparable countries. There are only a limited number of treatments available for patients with ovarian cancer. Patients should be given access to treatments as soon as they become available.

Protecting the role of clinical nurse specialists (CNS)
In the largest patient experience survey undertaken in England, patients rated the support offered by clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) highly and those who received the support of a CNS reported having a better patient experience. There is already variation in specialist nurse provision for patients with gynaecological cancers and there is already anecdotal evidence of CNS roles being cut in an attempt to reduce NHS costs. CNS roles need to be protected so that all patients have access to a specialist nurse.

Patient experiences of treatment and care
Ovacome recently produced our own analysis of results from a national survey of cancer patients . This survey asked people about their experience of care including:

How quickly they were referred for treatment

Whether patients felt they had the right amount of information about their condition and treatment
The choices they were given about their treatment
Whether patients were given easy access to a named clinical nurse specialist
Among patients with gynaecological cancers (including ovarian cancer),
Almost 30% of patients had to see their GP more than twice before being referred to hospital. This compares to 8% for breast cancer
81% of patients were offered a choice of treatment before commencing treatment, slightly below the 83% for all cancer types
60% of patients reported that they found their Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) easy to contact during their course of treatment compared with 75% of patients across all tumour groups
Less than 77% of patients felt they were given the appropriate amount of information about their condition and treatment, 10% less than the figures for all cancer types

If you would like to see a copy of the results for your area, please contact us on 0845 371054. You may wish to take a copy along to your meeting or send it to your MP afterwards.

To download this information as a PDF factsheet complete with references, please click here.