Australia (Commonwealth Union) – The broad integration of data together with data analytics tools has rapidly advanced multiple fields of science. The increasing rates of cancer in recent times have pushed cancer researchers and oncologists to take a closer look at the possible causes and influencing factors and the possible reasons for the rising rates. Stress, unhealthy diets, smoking and certain environmental pollutants are known to influence many types of cancers.
An international study into mucinous ovarian cancer may assist oncologists to advice the most suitable treatment for females getting an early diagnosis for the condition. With microscope observations for two different ‘patterns of invasion’, which is the way cancer cells invade ovarian tissue, can help oncologists possibly improve forecasting of which patients could have better or worse prognoses, paving the way for tailor made specific treatments for individuals.
“Mucinous ovarian cancer is a rare type of ovarian cancer. It actually has more in common with gastrointestinal cancers, and can be hard to diagnose and hard to treat once it has spread beyond the ovaries,” Nicki Meagher, the lead author who recently finisher her PhD in the Molecular Oncology group at the UNSW School of Clinical Medicine said, adding that monitoring which of the two types of invasive patterns the cancer cells form could assist doctors to conclude treatment strategies.
Meagher further noted that they have indicated for the 1st time that women who are in early stages where the tumors have not gone beyond the ovary, have poorer survival chances in the initial 2 years from diagnosis with an infiltrative pattern of invasion.
Professor Susan Ramus, who leads the Ovarian Tumour Tissue Analysis consortium, oversaw the study. She stated that guidelines on treatments for females with early-stage mucinous ovarian cancer have variations worldwide as a result of limited data on infiltrative patterns of invasion linked to survival rates.
