Moving towards personalised treatments for ovarian cancer
Background
Over 1600 women are expected to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in Australia in 2018 and only around 44% survive for five years or longer. Unlike many other cancer types, ovarian cancer has few targeted treatments based on the specific changes that have occurred in a woman’s tumour. These targeted treatments are thought to be key to gaining significant improvements in survival. For instance, for breast cancer, where targeted treatments exist, the five-year survival rate is around 90%.
The research
This project will study the most common type of ovarian cancer: high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Professor Ramus and her team will analyse tumours from 3700 women and group the patients whose tumour cells show similar changes. This study is five times bigger than any other ovarian cancer study of this type in the world. This scale of analysis is important to account for all the differences that exist. The team will find the changes that are most important in the tumours and develop new clinical tests that will allow testing for subtypes. This would give patients and their doctors more information about their particular form of the disease and help with decisions on treatment.
The impact
Knowing the specific changes that have occurred in a tumour is critical if personalised treatments specific to those changes are to be developed. Such personalised treatments would be a significant step forward and should improve survival for this aggressive cancer.