Runcie Chidebe, Executive Director at Project PINK BLUE, shared a post on LinkedIn about a paper by first authors name et al. published in The Lancet – Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women’s Health:
“New Publication: The Lancet
Ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer mortality in women globally, resulting in an estimated 207,000 deaths in 2022.
The global incidence of ovarian cancer is predicted to increase by 55% by 2050, mainly driven by aging and population expansion in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Nigeria. Despite the increasing burden of ovarian cancer, experiences of women before, during, and after an ovarian cancer diagnosis are largely unknown and scarce in LMICs.
On this premise, the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition established an oversight committee of scientists, patients, and advocates under the Every Woman Study LMICs. We, the oversight committee, conducted a cross-sectional study using a 59-item survey. We recruited 2531 patients from 82 hospitals in 22 countries.
Our findings were:
- Increasing age group at diagnosis was associated with higher odds of late-stage (III–IV) diagnosis.
- More than half of respondents reported abdominal and/or pelvic pain and increased abdominal size and/or persistent bloating, more than a quarter reported feeling full and/or difficulty eating, and one in five reported urinary urgency and/or frequency.
- Eating-related symptoms, bloating, weight loss, and bowel-related symptoms were more strongly associated with late-stage (III-IV) diagnosis.
- Women with late-stage diagnoses were significantly more likely to report an increasing number of symptom categories than those with early-stage diagnoses.
- Women with OC in LMICs will like their government to prioritise the development of a screening programme, free access to diagnostic tests, reduction in delays in diagnosis, raising awareness of ovarian cancer and the symptoms, and free access to treatments.
- Many of the patients reported that their financial situation had been impacted to a great extent by ovarian cancer.
To our knowledge, this is the largest study to report the symptoms of ovarian cancer experienced by women before diagnosis and the first conducted in the LMIC setting.
We argue that understanding patients’ priorities is key to tailoring improvements in ovarian cancer research and care in LMICs. Given the variation in inpatient experiences and outcomes between LMICs, interventions should be tailored to local needs and priorities.”
Title: Experiences of women with ovarian cancer in 22 low-income and middle-income countries (Every Woman Study LMICs): a cross-sectional study
Authors: Garth Funston, Eileen Morgan, Tracey Adams, Rafe Sadnan Adel, Carlos Eduardo Andrade, Raikhan Bolatbekova, Runcie C W Chidebe, Robin Cohen, Mary Eiken, Dilyara Kaidarova, Karen Kapur, Iren Lau, Clara MacKay, Precious Takondwa Makondi, Asima Mukhopadhyay, Aisha Mustapha, Sara Nasser, Florencia Noll, Martin Origa, Jitendra Pariyar, Shahana Pervin, Ngoc Phan, Rebeca Ramirez-Morales, Basel Refky, Juliana Rodriguez, Afrin Fatima Shaffi, Isabelle Soerjomataram, Eva-Maria Strömsholm, Sook-Yee Yoon, Nargiza Zakhirova, Frances Reid
You can read the full article in The Lancet – Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women’s Health.
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