Researchers at Keele University are embarking on a new study to help improve the early detection of ovarian cancer, which could benefit thousands of women every year. 

Working with Cancer Research UK, the team led by Dr Sarah Gosling hope to refine the ways in which signs of cancer can be identified in ovarian tissue, meaning it can be detected at an earlier stage to improve patient treatment and outcomes. 

Ovarian cancer is the 6th most common cancer for women in the UK, accounting for around 7500 new cases and over 4000 deaths every year, making it the most lethal gynaecological cancer.  

Only 35 % of patients survive for 10 years after their diagnosis, with five-year survival rate dropping from 94% at stage I to only 16% at stage IV, highlighting the essential role of early detection in maximising survival rates.  

Over 60% of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at stage III or IV, and are often found at the stage where they have already spread, meaning there is a high level of mortality associated with an ovarian cancer diagnosis.  

Due to a lack of symptoms at the early stages of the disease, and the vagueness of symptoms at later stages including bloating, loss of appetite and abdominal pain, ovarian cancer is increasingly difficult to diagnose.  

Some early screening methods like blood tests and transvaginal ultrasounds have been developed, but ultimately not adopted into national screening programmes due to their lack of sensitivity or specificity. 

These limitations highlight the need for new detection methods, which will enable doctors to detect cancer at its earliest, most treatable stage. 

Using the latest scientific methods including X-ray scattering, the Keele team hope to identify specific biological markers in the ovarian tissue and fallopian tubes – where some ovarian cancers are thought to develop - that may indicate the presence of cancerous cells. 

These techniques have previously been successful in identifying biochemical changes that indicate breast cancer, so the team hope this could lead to the development of reliable and robust early predictors of ovarian cancer as well. 

Dr Sarah Gosling, who is leading the study, said: “Ovarian cancer is commonly detected at a later stage where long-term survival rates are low, due to the cancer being less treatable and the chances of spreading to other parts of the body increasing. There is a lack of national screening programmes for ovarian cancer, meaning it is difficult to detect cases early, with 25% of cases presenting as an emergency, compared to 2% and 6% for breast and prostate cancer.” 

“With cases of ovarian cancer anticipated to rise over the next ten years, there is an urgent need to develop methods to identify cases of ovarian cancer at an early stage to improve patient outcomes. The work proposed in this project aims to determine markers of early disease in the ovaries by bringing together a multidisciplinary team of biomaterials scientists, biologists and clinicians to understand the fundamental processes driving cancer formation and explore future clinical applications of the work.”