Ovarian Cancer Action

Ovarian Cancer Action launches Internationally important UK-wide research collaborative

14/02/2012: Ovarian Cancer Action launches the UK’s first nationwide laboratory research collaborative in ovarian cancer.  The initiative - known as BriTROC (British Translational Research Ovarian cancer Collaborative) - will enable the creation of a high-quality nationwide tissue and bio specimen bank.  The collaborative has been identified as critically important by international experts in ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer is a complex disease. This collaborative will enable scientists to have a better understanding of why many women become resistant to platinum chemotherapy, help them identify novel targets for treatment and enable clinicians in the future to identify those women who have developed chemotherapy resistance.

Watch BBC One coverage of the news by clicking here (9 minutes into the programme).

Ovarian cancer research may pave the way for new treatment approach to benefit tens of thousands

14/02/2012: Ovarian Cancer Action scientists have discovered the mechanism of a potentially important cancer protein that may have major implications for the treatment of not just ovarian cancer but lots of other forms of the disease. This new research describes how “OPCML”, a protein active in normal cells, works to suppress cancer growth, how it is switched off in cancer and demonstrates that a therapy based on replacing the protein at the cell surface may offer a new treatment approach for ovarian and other cancers in the future.

This latest work from a team at the Ovarian Cancer Action’s Research Centre,  - led by Professor Hani Gabra, Director of the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre, Imperial College London - is reported in Cancer Discovery, the prestigious new journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. 

This study results from a collaboration between Ovarian Cancer Action researchers, others at Imperial College London and a team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, USA.

Avastin granted licence for use with ovarian cancer

It has been announced that Avastin has been licensed for use in the managment of ovarian cancer.  Read Ovarian Cancer Action's statement.

OCAM website

National Cancer Director congratulates charities on joint initiative for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

All four national ovarian cancer charities have worked together this year to create a website with information about ovarian cancer symptoms.  Please read our press release below.

Donating via text results in growth in charities' revenues

The Guardian (21 November 2011) reports that the new trend in making charitable donations by text has resulted in growth in charities’ revenues.  Donors are taking to text donations because it is instant and spontaneous. 

To make a text donation to Ovarian Cancer Action please text OCHi05 with your donation amount (for example OCHi05£10) to 70070.

Ovarian Cancer action becomes member of National Voices

Ovarian Cancer Action has become a member of National Voices, an increasingly influential coalition of more than 100 health and social care charities, all working to strengthen the voice of patients, carers, service users, their families and the organisations that represent them.

Key current themes for the National Voices coalition include:

• Working on developments on the Health & Social Care Bill. We recently gave evidence to the Public Bill Committee. We are now working with members to refine areas for collective action in the light of 'wins' in the Bill and the issues that need more attention.
• Shaping the framework for the new consumer champion, HealthWatch, making use of our positions on the government's HealthWatch Programme and Advisory Boards.
• Working with the new consortia of GP commissioners and the National Commissioning Board to embed patient and public involvement, fairness, integrated care and supported self management of long term conditions.
• Making a reality of "no decision about me without me", making use of our position on the shared decision-making steering group of the government's programme for quality and efficiency in health.

Recent highlights include the orchestration of powerful member responses to the government's Listening Exercise, the Health and Social Care Bill and associated consultations on commissioning; outcomes; democratic legitimacy; regulation and information, choice and control.

Simon Denegri, Chief Executive of Ovarian Cancer Action, said today: 'I am delighted that we have become a member of National Voices. We work as part of a number cancer charity coalitions but it also important that we work with colleagues across the wider health and care agenda as well. It is only through this sort of alliance that we can ensure the patient's voice is louder and we have more chance of influencing policy and practice in the future.'

Ovarian Cancer Action calls for Government support for its 9-point action plan into ovarian cancer research at Westminster Hall Debate

We are delighted that MP Stuart Andrew is hosting a Westminster Hall Debate on Ovarian Cancer this morning. The debate is being attended by the Health Minister and Shadow Health Minister and gives MPs the opportunity to raise issues with them.

Ovarian Cancer Action recently called for a new 9-point action plan to be implemented in ovarian cancer research to improve both quality of life for those with the disease and ovarian cancer survival rates for women in the UK. The plan results from the highest profile international meeting of 50 world-leaders in ovarian cancer research at this year's International HHMT Summit - organised by Ovarian Cancer Action and posited at the most groundbreaking meeting of a decade.

This action plan was published in Nature Reviews Cancer on 23 September 2011.  It calls for a radical rethink of ovarian cancer and the direction for research if change in women's outcomes is to accelerate including the continued call for better symptoms awareness and a screening test. Ovarian Cancer Action would like support in calling for Government funding for better targeted clinical trials; a national screening programme for women genetically predisposed to ovarian cancer; ensuring that the NHS offers treatment that targets both the tumour and the tumour micro-environment; government funded clinical trials to always include robust plans to study tumour samples; and that consortia make available data for sharing via international collaborations.  Quality of life issues are key in the action plan with a call for measures to be built into clinic trials to ensure women don't suffer unnecessarily from their treatment, and there is a call for better collaboration between drug companies. Many of the action plan's authors come from the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre, Imperial College London.

Ovarian Cancer Action believes that if the plan is facilitated the UK could be positioned as an international leader in the fight against this deadly disease.

A call for a radical rethink in the direction of ovarian cancer research published today

Leading international scientists are behind a new nine-point action plan for ovarian cancer research entitled Rethinking Ovarian Cancer published in Nature Reviews Cancer. The authors, together with Ovarian Cancer Action, urge colleagues, research funders, charities, industry and patients to back the strategy in beating what remains one of the most deadly cancers for women in the UK and across the world.

The plan is the outcome of a global summit of scientists held earlier this year in the United States and organised by Ovarian Cancer Action, the UK's leading ovarian cancer charity. Professor Fran Balkwill, Chair of the 12th International Helene Harris Memorial Trust (HHMT) Forum in January, described it as one of the most significant meetings in the field for over a decade.

The summit was organised by Ovarian Cancer Action and many of the paper's authors come from the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre, Imperial College London.

Read the press release
Read the summary
Timeline of key ovarian cancer events
Read the article in Nature Reviews Cancer

The Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre

Efficacy of a CA125 blood test for ovarian cancer screening