The rates of women dying from ovarian cancer in England have fallen from 11.2 women in every 100,000 in 2001 to 8.8 per 100,000 in 2010 – a drop of around 20%, according to a new report by the National Cancer Intelligence Network.
The most notable drop in deaths over the last 10 years has been among women aged 40-69 years old. The report also showed that survival for ovarian cancer has increased since the mid- 1980s – women surviving their disease for at least a year has risen from 57% to 73% and five-year survival has increased from 33% to 44%. The report also identified that the chance of surviving the disease varies widely between ages, becoming increasingly worse with age, even after adjusting for the higher background mortality in the older population generally. For women aged 15-39 diagnosed with ovarian cancer, 84% survived their disease for at least five years, compared with just 14% of those aged over 85 years at diagnosis.
