Genetic Variants Linked to Aggressive Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer accounts for more deaths than any other gynecologic cancer. Less than 20 percent of cases are diagnosed at the most treatable stage, which means the majority of women are not being diagnosed early enough for treatment to be most effective. Early diagnosis is critical for improving the five-year survival rate.

This new discovery offers “the possibility that in the future, women in the general population who are at the greatest risk of developing ovarian cancer because they carry these newly discovered DNA variants can be identified and given closer surveillance to look for early signs of ovarian cancer when it is most treatable,” says Andrew Berchuck, MD, professor of gynecologic oncology at Duke University Medical Center and head of the steering committee of the international Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium.