A Decade of Progress in Ovarian Cancer and the Road Ahead

By Marie-Claire Platt, Head of Research and Policy at Ovarian Cancer Action

This March, we’re raising awareness of a deeply concerning fact: 1 year survival rates in ovarian cancer have barely improved  in the last 10 years. While we want to highlight  this lack of progress, our supporters will know this isn’t the whole story. There’s been real progress behind the scenes - progress we know is going to mean big improvements in survival rates in the years ahead.

It’s been almost a decade since I joined Ovarian Cancer Action, and while these figures may seem bleak, I’ve seen firsthand how far we’ve come. Research breakthroughs, new treatments, and uncovering the stark inequalities in care across the UK are just some of the ways we’ve been pushing for change.

We know that where a patient lives impacts their chances of survival. 12,000 of you called on the Government to fund a National Ovarian Cancer Audit. Thanks to your powerful voices, we can now see the data to show us that while the UK-wide survival rate remains around 70%, some regions have significantly worse outcomes, but crucially also significantly higher survival too. The Hammersmith Hospital, where our Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre is based, reach 88%. This is up there with the best survival rates in the world.

To tackle these regional differences,  we launched Improve UK, our programme aimed at ensuring every patient gets access to the best possible care, no matter where they live. Imagine if we could lift survival rates across the UK to match the best? That’s what we’re striving for, and we’re already starting to see the impact, with exciting plans to come.

We’ve also seen game-changing developments in treatment. Back in 2015, a new type of drug called a PARP inhibitor became available, but only for a very limited group of patients. Thanks to supporters like Florence sharing their experiences with NICE, today these treatments are available as an option for all patients with high grade serous ovarian cancer after diagnosis. This shift means more women are now living many more years after their diagnosis. NICE has also finally recognised the important of surgery in treating ovarian cancer, and new guidance put in place next year should mean more women up and down the country are offered this in the years to come.

Thanks to these new treatment advances, we’ve also seen big progress in offering BRCA testing to women when they are diagnosed. Testing the families of the women who carry a gene mutation means we are stopping ovarian cancer in its tracks, and today women like Elizabeth are breaking the cycle of ovarian cancer’s devastating impact through families with a high risk.

In 2024, we reached another turning point. Our research at the University of Oxford led by Professor Ahmed Ahmed has taken a giant leap. Using the knowledge of how ovarian cancer starts in its earliest stages, he is developing the world’s first ovarian cancer vaccine, a groundbreaking step toward preventing the disease altogether.

Despite these advances, too many women are still being let down. These new treatments only work well for a subset of women. We desperately need more research to make personalised treatment for every woman with ovarian cancer a reality - especially for those who don’t respond to treatment at all. Our research at the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre is trying to uncover how ovarian cancer evolves so that we can keep treatments working for years after a diagnosis.

The next decade has the potential to see incredible change. A preventative vaccine in clinical trial, all women having the same chance of surviving the disease no matter where she lives, treatments that work and stay working, and new technologies to detect the disease early. But we can’t do this alone. With your continued support we can make this a reality in the next ten years, and together, we can transform survival rates.