Buy and wear a teal ribbon for ovarian cancer awareness
February, Australia’s Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and in particular on 23 February for Teal Ribbon Day, provides an opportunity for us all to focus on ovarian cancer and its impact on those affected by the disease.
Each year in Australia about 1,200 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. More than two-thirds of women are diagnosed at an advanced stage, where the cancer has spread and is difficult to treat successfully.
Ovarian cancer doesn’t have a screening test. It is important that women are aware of the facts about ovarian cancer, the symptoms to look out for and what to do.
News on the ovarian cancer website reveals that a group of international scientists has identified a handful of important new genetic variants indicating increased risk of ovarian cancer, which also reveal important genetic similarities between it and breast cancer.
Researchers from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, together with researchers in the United States, Europe and Canada, compared the genes of 10,238 women with ovarian cancer to 13,185 healthy women and found five different stretches of DNA containing single-code variations, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, linked to increased risk of the disease.
The identification of these mutations is likely to greatly assist in the early detection of ovarian cancer, while paving the way for new preventative treatments.
Another report, by the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership, has found that survival rates for cancers of the ovary, breast, bowel and lung that were diagnosed between 1995 and 2007 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom improved in all six countries. Australia, Canada and Sweden ranked at the top of cancer survival amongst these six countries studied.
To find out more, visit http://www.ovariancancer.net.au
