Five-year survival rates among women with ovarian cancer have almost doubled in the last three decades, new figures show.

In the early 1970s, only 21 per cenr of women diagnosed with the disease in England and Wales were still alive after five years. Today, the numbers have expanded to 41 per cent.

More than 1,000 women per year are surviving ovarian cancer for at least five years, according to Cancer Research UK.

But the charity said more work was needed to see improvements in women diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer, who account for the majority of patients.

Women diagnosed with stage III cancer, who make up the 45 per cent of the total, still only have a 20 per cent chance of living for five years.

For women diagnosed with stage IV disease the figure falls to less than six per cent.

Ovarian cancer often develops without obvious symptoms and is only discovered once it has started to metastasise, or spread.

James Brenton, from Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute, who treats ovarian cancer patients at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, said: “These latest figures show improvements in treatment, such as centralisation of ovarian cancer surgery and uniform access to chemotherapy, are making a difference in helping more women survive ovarian cancer, particularly those who are diagnosed earlier. But we face a real challenge in translating these improvements in survival to women whose ovarian cancer has already spread.”

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer in women. Each year around 6,500 British women are diagnosed with the disease which in 2008 caused 4,373 deaths, despite mortality rates falling by 14 per cent over the last 10 years.

Cancer Research UK is helping to fund a major trial of ovarian cancer screening designed to tackle the problem of late diagnosis.

More than 200,000 women are participating in the trial which will see whether ultrasound scanning and blood testing can save lives. Early results from the study, due to release final findings in 2015, are said to be promising.

Scientists funded by Cancer Research UK are also working on more targeted treatments for ovarian cancer. They include drugs called PARP inhibitors, which have produced good results in clinical trials.

Dr Brenton said: “Ovarian cancer is starting to become a more controllable chronic disease but a cure remains elusive in most cases. We need to investigate the full potential of targeted treatments such as PARP inhibitors. Hopefully through these new treatments and, importantly, with better ways to screen and detect the cancer earlier, we will help more women beat the disease.”

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