The researchers who are changing the story of ovarian cancer

We meet Cambridge researchers leading a pioneering programme to help more women survive ovarian cancer.

Only 43% of women in England survive five years beyond their ovarian cancer diagnosis. Professors James Brenton and Evis Sala aim to change this.

Their research at the Mark Foundation Institute for Integrated Cancer Medicine at the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Centre is bringing together complex data (clinical features, imaging, genomic data, molecular tests, tumour pathology, treatment outcomes and so on) with machine learning techniques to help clinicians make better decisions for patients, not just in Cambridge but across the UK and the world.
#ItTakesImagination


This research was supported by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the CRUK Cambridge Centre, the CRUK Cambridge Institute, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research US Ltd, Ovarian Cancer Action and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the Department of Health and Social Care or other funders.

[LiluCavs]

My mom died from an ovarian cancer. She passed away 7 years after she was diagnosed with this disease, after chemoterapy and after surgery. It was such a painful event to see her suffering !!! But with these good news now, there is a new chance to defeat this type of cancer or at least, to make patients go through different stages, in a better way. Thanks a lot for your efforts! Kind regards from Argentina! Liliana.

[sarmedabdullah]

Thanks for standing at this complex diagnosis over a year. Of interest is that Poly ADP Ribose Polymerase (PARP) inhibitors that are useful for ovar. cancer management had also been to our observation useful for management of refractory major depressive disorder (MDD), and that both ovarian cancer and MDD are statistically the two major economic and political dilemmas afflicting the United Kingdom and NHS.

[Theflowoflove]

What research are you doing into to the link with PTSD.
Developing somatic therapeutic based care facilities for PTSD will reduce the emotional charge, lowering the production of stress hormones. CBT is not enough to regulate the pendulation & discharge of trauma.
When a justice system is put in place in the UK that punishes perp's for violence against women, this will be a milestone in women feeling seen heard & healthier.
Gynaecological research & care also needs to make extensive room for female Consultants. PTSD will mean many women will never feel safe in an environment predominantly appropriated by men.
This only adds to female PTSD.
In the USA their approach is far more holistic & preventative.
All women that have a history of PTSD need regular ultrasounds & thorough screening.
The UK doesn't even offer Somatic based therapy for women with PTSD, even though women have never felt more stressed than now.
Technological input is great but needs integrating into long term trauma care units, but real ground-breaking work will be when the work of Bessel Van de Kolk & Peter Levine becomes integrated into PTSD training facilities.
Somatic therapy is at an early stage & needs to offer a very strict protocal that ensure that women are not further traumatised by some men in treatment conditions that bring their own impatient inability to articulate their own emotional felt sense into to the process.
Gabor Mate' has worked greatly in vicarious trauma workshops demonstrating the full extent that facilitators show up with their own unresolved issues projecting this onto already traumatised patients.
I want to see more sensitised Consultancy in the field of Gynaecology instead of an overly masculine perspective which tends to only see the patient when the outcomes are all too often too little too late. Furthermore, the Oncological narrative needs to be approached with a more respectful sensitivity towards sufferers. The bed side manner of Oncologists is often lacking in emotional social intelligence.
There is an excellent approach at the Leicester hospital, where discussion is aimed at ensuring the patient gets seen heard & that their care is tailored to their needs. They are truly listening to their patients. Imagine a trauma based somatic approach that prevents this from ever having to arise.
PTSD victims rarely if ever get referred to a gynaecologist, along with an absence of appropriate somatic therapy.
What women need is gynaecology PTSD & GUM care to be under one umbrella. Many women's trauma memories dont show up until women themselves become mothers.
There also needs to be a frontline extensive female care team trained in Somatic therapy at the forefront of GUM care, as this is the first access female trauma victims will experience. With ongoing screening as high priority of PTSD sufferers. This will be far more cost effective in the long term & increase healthy & longevity in women.
Ovarian cancer needs to be looked at as preventable, just as violent crime against women needs to be. This is where the work has to start.
This research needs to be feedback to Government to ensure women's health is restored instead of threatened.
Research needs to branch into a holistic preventable approach.