Ovarian cancer is considered one of the deadliest cancers affecting women. Although it ranks sixth in terms of prevalence, awareness of it remains much lower compared to other types such as breast cancer.
This lack of public awareness, coupled with the absence of effective early detection screenings, causes most cases to be diagnosed at advanced stages, significantly reducing the chances of recovery.
Ovarian cancer
Experts confirm that recovery rates reach about 80% when the disease is detected in its early stages, but they decrease to about 40% in advanced stages.
Professor Tamar Safra, director of the Women’s Cancer Center at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, explains that “the main problem lies in the ambiguity of symptoms and the absence of a screening test similar to mammography or colonoscopy,” noting that the majority of women are “diagnosed after the tumor has spread outside the ovary.”
Early symptoms of the disease are general and non-specific, such as abdominal pain, bloating, digestive disorders, or changes in weight, which often lead to delayed diagnosis.
Bar Levi, founder of the “Beit Bar” association supporting women with gynecological cancers, adds that “talking about these diseases is still surrounded by stigma, which drives many to silence or downplay symptoms.”
Women carrying the BRCA mutation are among the most at-risk groups, with the probability of developing the disease reaching between 15 and 45%, compared to about 2% in the general population. These women have special follow-up and prevention programs that include regular medical monitoring and preventive procedures.
In the field of treatment, recent years have witnessed significant development with the introduction of biological treatments and PARP inhibitors, in addition to new targeted drugs that have shown promising results after years of stagnation.
However, activists and experts warn of the widening treatment gap due to the non-inclusion of some of these drugs in the health insurance basket, creating inequality between those with private insurance and those who rely on the public system.
Specialists agree that raising awareness, breaking the stigma, and expanding access to modern treatments are urgent steps to transform the “forgotten cancer” into a health and humanitarian priority.
