Ovarian cancer discovery could prevent fertility problems

A breakthrough Ovarian Cancer discovery could prevent Australian women from unnecessarily having their ovaries removed and losing their fertility.

Transcript

00:00 Just over a year ago, 35-year-old Amelia Higgs was looking forward to starting a family,

00:07 but an ultrasound picked up cysts on her ovaries.

00:10 About a week after that I found out that I needed to have surgery to check whether the

00:14 cysts were cancerous or not.

00:16 Within two weeks, Amelia underwent life-altering surgery to remove her ovaries.

00:22 I was informed that I had a condition called borderline complex ovarian cysts.

00:28 Although they hadn't become cancerous yet, if they were left untreated they highly likely

00:32 would have then developed into cancer.

00:35 Nine out of ten patients who go under the knife like Amelia don't have cancer, but in

00:39 Australia right now it's the only way for doctors to make a diagnosis.

00:44 One of the consequences of these surgeries is very often removal of the ovaries and for

00:50 a woman of reproductive age that means instant menopause, so it means no children.

00:55 That could change thanks to a breakthrough at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research

00:59 in Melbourne in the form of a blood test before surgery.

01:03 It's designed to pick up cancers at an earlier time point and it's also able to very accurately

01:11 differentiate between what is a cancer and what is a non-cancerous condition.

01:15 The work has been funded by the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.

01:19 Dr Stephens also fronts an Australian company that plans to commercialise the blood test.

01:25 It will be put on the stock exchange tomorrow.

01:28 Following regulatory approval, this triage test will be available for clinical use within

01:34 two years.

01:35 The company says an early detection test for ovarian cancer labelled the Holy Grail is

01:41 still four to five years away.

01:43 It could mean women like Amelia have more time to make choices around fertility and

01:48 treatment.

01:49 The situation has happened, I can't change it now and I'm just really excited that this

01:56 test is available and might prevent other people from being in my situation.

02:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]