New research from a team at the Mater University Hospital in Dublin on treating advanced ovarian cancer has found that aggressive surgery has a significant impact on survival rates.
The improved outcomes resulted in 70% of patients less likely to die three years after surgery.
These types of complex surgeries involve multiple specialists and can take up to ten hours to perform.
The team at the Mater examined two groups of patients, a group from 2006-2015 and a group from 2017-2021.
The new research shows that disease progression three years after surgery and chemotherapy has reduced from 75% in the first group of patients, to under 50% in the second - a decrease of more than 35%.
Senior author of the study, Professor Donal Brennan, Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist at the Mater Hospital and Professor of Gynaecological Oncology at UCD School of Medicine, said that ovarian cancer is a complicated disease that requires input from multiple specialties including medical oncology, pathology, radiology and surgery.
He said that extensive surgery is often required and collaboration between different surgical specialities allows doctors to safely perform aggressive operations, to remove all visible tumours from the abdomen, which is the single greatest predictor of improved survival.
Prof Brennan said the study supports the growing body of international evidence that patients with ovarian cancer have better outcomes when managed in centralised specialised oncology centres, such as the Mater.
Ovarian cancer is the seventh most prevalent female cancer globally and frequently presents at an advanced stage due to lack of symptom awareness.
Historically, survival rates here have significantly lagged behind Ireland's European neighbours.
In May 2017, Jeannine Davis from Coolock in Dublin, received a diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer at the age of 39.
The only symptoms she had of ovarian cancer was a swollen stomach and she said she was devastated to learn of her diagnosis.
However, she was treated by the gynaecological oncology team at the Mater who she said had saved her life.
The new research is published today in the international journal, Annals of Surgical Oncology.
