Ovarian cancer is a ‘silent killer’, but it doesn’t have to be- and Australia could lead the way for the world in taking a stand against the disease.

That’s the belief of researchers and advocates, who say the only thing holding back progress against Australia’s most lethal gynaecological cancer is inadequate funding.

Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation CEO Robin Penty said while the disease “is complex, it’s not insurmountable”.

“We haven’t invested enough time, effort, focus or energy on this problem, and you know, when we do, we will see change,” she said.

“There are 18 projects, for example, on early detection, going on around the world, so there are multiple multinational teams working on this complex problem. And Australia is ready, you know, we have the best medical researchers in the world, including those in ovarian cancer.”

“We punch well above our weight as a country and they are also really collaborative and collegiate, sharing knowledge, tumour samples, data, you know, anything that’s needed to learn together.”

While other forms of cancer may be more common in Australia, their survival rates and treatment options have improved due to sustained research funding.

While prostate cancer and bowel cancer have five-year survival rates of 95 and 72 per cent respectively, ovarian cancer’s five-year survival rate is 49 per cent – and for the 70 per cent of patients diagnosed with late-stage disease, the figure drops to 31 per cent.

Patients still primarily receive chemotherapy, the same form of treatment used 30 years ago, and the disease remains without an early detection test.

But researcher Dr Maree Bilandzic said Australia’s success with the likes of cervical cancer was proof a five-year survival rate of 90 per cent can “absolutely” be achieved for ovarian cancer, with researchers poised to make strides against the disease but hobbled by a lack of funding for clinical trials and testing.

“The cervical cancer vaccine has all but eradicated cervical cancer in Australia, we hardly get any, but we just really need to understand first how (ovarian cancer) starts beforehand,” she said.

“We definitely have the means to make this disease not something that’s a death sentence. So we can make the treatments that we have for those patients more effective.

“Australian ovarian cancer researchers are world-class, we have the capacity, we have the capability, we just don’t have the resources or funding to be able to do it. If we did, we can definitely change the impact that this disease has on women. We can turn this disease into something that is manageable and something that women can survive.”

The average age of an ovarian cancer patient is 66, but the development of the disease in younger patients remains unexplained.

Ms Penty said the answers would come from sustained investment.

“In the past 10 years, we’ve learned that a high proportion of ovarian cancers start in the fallopian tube, but these are the new discoveries that could be gamechangers for future research,” she said.

“I like to describe it as a marathon, not a sprint, you know, we have to be in for the long haul. “(Earlier onset disease) is an issue across all cancer types, but with so little data available, we need to know why younger people are experiencing disease at all. It used to be much later in life that anyone would need to worry about a cancer diagnosis.

“The way I think of medical research is it’s urgent today, because if we don’t invest today, then in 20 years’ time we’ll be having the same conversation. We need to have the answers sooner.”

For more information on ovarian cancer, head to ocrf.com.au.