Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to move the motion as it appears on the Notice Paper in my name. Every 10 hours ovarian cancer claims another victim. That is roughly the time we will be sitting in this chamber today. It is the sixth most common cause of cancer death in Australia. Ovarian cancer falls under the greater heading of gynaecological cancers and affects over 1,200 new women and their families each year. While great leaps have been made in recent years tackling other cancers, such as breast and cervical cancer, there has been little movement in the trends and rates of ovarian cancer. Perhaps this is because it is hard to detect in its early stages when it can be treated and it is far easier, unfortunately, to detect when it has advanced too far. Some women are lucky, but most are not.

For women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1982 and 1986, the five-year survival rate was 70.9 per cent and that has increased by over 15 per cent to a five-year survival rate of 86.6 per cent for women diagnosed between 1998 and 2002. That is a substantial improvement in the survival rate. But when it comes to ovarian cancer, the figures are not so encouraging. The five-year survival rate for women diagnosed between 1982 and 1986 was only 34.3 per cent, less than half that of women with breast cancer. That survival rate has increased but only to 42 per cent, still well under half of that for women with breast cancer. The 10-year survival rate is even less encouraging. With the most recent figures available for women diagnosed with breast cancer it is 73.6 per cent, up from 57.5 per cent; for women diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the 10-year survival rate is only 32.2 per cent, up from 29.6 per cent. This represents only a 2.6 per cent improvement since the early 1980s.

Between 1991 and 2001, there was a 23 per cent increase in new cases of ovarian cancer being diagnosed; during the same period of time there was a 33 per cent decrease in the number of new cervical cancer cases. Fifty-seven per cent of all deaths from gynaecological cancers are from ovarian cancer and that is up from 52 per cent in 1991.

Something needs to be done. There needs to be more research devoted to this cancer, more education. I am pleased that in this budget there is a $5.1 million allocation for the National Centre for Gynaecological Cancers over the next three years. But it can only be a first step though, a down payment, as we will need a much greater effort backed by greater resources into the future. The journey will be long to reduce the mortality rates for ovarian cancer and to develop early detection tests but also to teach women what symptoms to look for. In a survey conducted by the National Breast Cancer Centre, half of all Australian women believed incorrectly that a pap smear would detect ovarian cancer and 56 per cent of women were unable to correctly name any signs or symptoms.

Ovarian Cancer Awareness Week ran from 24 February to 2 March. I am grateful for that because, prior to reading the information sent to me for ovarian cancer week, I was one of the 56 per cent of women who are largely ignorant of this disease—even though as a woman I am quite meticulous about my health and I have all the recommended tests on time and keep good medical records. So if I do not know about it, I think it is not surprising that there are so many other women who also do not. Ovarian cancer is often a silent disease in the early stages, which means many women have no symptoms. If symptoms do appear, they are usually vague and may include swelling, discomfort and pain in the abdomen, gastrointestinal symptoms such as heartburn, nausea and bloating, changes in bowel habits such as constipation and diarrhoea, tiredness and appetite loss, unexplained weight loss or weight gain, changes in menstrual pattern or post-menopausal bleeding. These symptoms are of course common to many illnesses and any women experiencing some of these could assign them to a range of different conditions—and most women with these symptoms will not have ovarian cancer. Only tests can confirm the diagnosis. We would do well as a nation to devote more effort and resources into fighting this deadly cancer.

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