According to the data of UC Davis researchers, about one-third of ovarian cancer patients live up to ten years after initial diagnosis. Analysis of the disease course of thousands of Californian patients revealed this data.
Although traditionally it was believed that good prognosis of ovarian cancer is associated with the early stage, low grade and younger age at diagnosis, a lot of long-term survivors not meeting these criteria contradict the belief.
Recent research in prognosis of ovarian cancer
The journal Obstetrics and Gynecology published a paper of Rosemary Cress where she asserted:
“The perception that every woman with this disease ends up with death is not correct.”
She also encouraged the obstetricians/gynecologists to diagnose ovarian cancer based on the information provided in the paper and give special care to the patients to complete the treatment and proper follow-up.
California Cancer Registry helped Cress to analyze data for the median survival of ovarian cancer patients. As an epidemiologist and associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences, she had the privilege to access the database of all ovarian cancer patients living in California from 1994 to 2001. About 9 out of 10 cases of ovarian cancer are epithelial in origin.
Surprising results
According to Cress and her associates’ observation, about one-third (3,582 out of 11,541) patients in the registry survived more than ten years after initial diagnosis. Notably, this study observed ten-year disease course for the first time. Prognosis of most types of cancers is based on five-year survival rate.
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In line with the previous assumption, most of the long-term survivors were diagnosed with ovarian cancer at a younger age, with early stage and low grade. To put it simply, the tumor cells had a low rate of multiplication and lowered invasiveness. Surprisingly, out of 3,582 long-term survivors, 954 were labeled as high-risk because of poor prognostic factors like high grade, advanced stage, or older age at diagnosis. They were supposed to die earlier but managed to live longer.
A co-author of the research paper, Gray Leiserowitz, a professor of surgical oncology and head of the UC Davis Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology suggested:
“This information is important while counseling the patients.”
He also stated that although ovarian cancer is known to be quite aggressive and thus panicking to most of the doctors and patients, its prognosis is highly variable. That means, not all patients with poor prognostic factors confront fatal outcome.
Factors influencing long-term survival
Leiserowitz added that the factors behind the long-term survival of patients with poor prognosis were yet to reveal by further research. He put a question that how so many patients survive such potentially fatal disease.
Leiserowitz believes that theoretically ovarian cancer patients with mutations in the tumor suppressor genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are chemo-sensitive while others are relatively resistant to chemotherapy. There may also be other genetic and biological variations that justify different outcomes.
He gave importance to the in-depth study of tumor tissue to reveal the possible genetic factors for a short and a long lifespan of cancer patients.
References:
- Long-term ovarian cancer survival higher than thought
- Facts and Figures – Ovarian CancerSurvival Rates
- Ovarian Cancer Dx Not a Death Sentence
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