Ovarian cancer sufferers 70% less likely to die after 'aggressive surgery' at Mater hospital
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Women with ovarian cancer are 70% less likely to die three years after their surgery thanks to an innovative surgical approach in a Dublin hospital.
By having surgeons from different specialities work together on ovarian cancer operations, the Mater hospital has also seen more women survive free of disease progression.
Ovarian cancer is one of the most common types of cancer among women in Ireland.
Since 2017, the Mater's approach has seen surgery for these patients under gynaecological oncologists include other specialist surgeons on the team.
Professor Donal Brennan, senior author of research published in the , said extensive surgery is often required.
“We believe that collaboration between different surgical specialities allows us to safely perform aggressive operations to remove all visible tumours from the abdomen, which is the single greatest predictor of improved survival,” he said.
Prof Brennan, gynaecological oncologist and professor of gynaecological oncology at University College Dublin, said medical oncology, pathology, radiology and surgery co-operate on these operations.
The study analysed 146 advanced ovarian cancer patients treated from 2006 to 2015 and 174 patients from 2017 to 2021.
They found three years after surgery the cancer progressed in 75% of patients in the first group, but only in 48.8% of the second group.
One of these patients, Jeannine Davis, was diagnosed at an advanced stage aged just 39 in May 2017.
“My only symptom was a bloated stomach,” she said, adding that over days this went from appearing she had eaten too much to appearing pregnant.
Her GP referred her to the Mater and in one day her life changed.
“I had a CT scan, there was 10 litres of fluid on my stomach so I had to get drained off,” she said. “Then I was told it was Stage 3C ovarian cancer. That was shocking. It was a huge shock because you are not expecting it.”
The following week she underwent what she describes as “very intense surgery, 10 hours long” led by Prof Brennan.
“My surgeon had said to me if I had waited another week I probably would have been inoperable,” she said.
“It was really severe, so thank God I met the surgeon that I did.”
She continues to receive some treatment.
“My daughter was only two and a half at the time I was diagnosed, so that was my goal — to see her go to school,” she said.
“That gave me determination to keep going.”
She urged women to talk to their GP, saying: “I encourage women if they’re in doubt about anything or just think there could be anything wrong, just to get it checked out."
She has found many women think a cervical smear picks up this type of cancer saying: “I would have thought myself that it would show up ovarian cancer, but it doesn’t.”
The HSE said the most common symptoms also include loss of appetite and urgently needing to urinate.