OVARIAN CANCER – THE SILENT KILLER

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Conference
2011 National Women's Conference
Date
21 October 2010
Decision
Carried

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer in women in the UK, affecting around six thousand and eight hundred women. It is the highest gynaecological killer of women in the UK and the fourth most common cause of death from cancer in women, with two out of every three cases of ovarian cancer being diagnosed when the disease has spread, thus limiting the treatment options.

Survival rates from ovarian cancer are low in the UK, with only thirty per cent of women diagnosed with the disease surviving five years beyond diagnosis. The survival rates have hardly improved over the past twenty years.

There needs to be an improvement in early stage diagnosis techniques and further research in prevention, detection, treatment and cures of ovarian cancer.

In the last eighteen months Ovarian Cancer Action has made tremendous progress and has opened the UK’s first research facility entirely dedicated to ovarian cancer. It has committed over one million pounds to ovarian cancer research and developed a symptom diary for women and GPs to use to clarify symptoms, to name just a few achievements.

This Conference calls upon the National Women’s Committee to:

1)Support the work of the Ovarian Cancer Research Unit

2)Campaign for research into ovarian cancer to be publicly funded

3)To raise awareness of ovarian cancer by campaigning on this issue

4)To consider circulating the symptom diary to women members

North West Women’s Forum