“Timely and coordinated access to a quality diagnostic, therapeutic and care pathway. This is the main need expressed by patients with ovarian cancer. An unmet need still today is the possibility of making an early diagnosis. Unfortunately, ovarian cancer is a pathology that is often diagnosed in a late phase and this certainly represents a limit also in the possibilities of treatment. There are also needs that arise in the treatment phase: between one therapy and another there is a world of needs of the patients. they also concern the social, health, work aspect, even at the end of treatment the desire to return to a normal life”. Rossana Berardi, professor of medical oncology at the Polytechnic University of Marche, explains this to Adnkronos Salute on World Ovarian Cancer Day.
“Today – he underlines – we know that for ovarian pathology it is essential to think about diagnostic tests and biomolecular investigations which also allow us to access innovative therapies with a view to precision oncology. The Brca1 and Brca2 genes, but even the HRD tests which evaluate the DNA repair capacity and therefore represent important therapeutic targets are indispensable when we plan the treatment strategy for our patients. Therefore it is important that there are quality laboratories that can perform them and that access to the test is absolutely timely and indeed useful for all patients”.
Regarding the objectives of the Ovarian Cancer Commitment (Occ), a European initiative promoted by AstraZeneca with the European Society of Gynecological Oncology (Esgo) and the European Network of Gynecological Cancer Advocacy Groups (Engage) to improve the management of the results of patients with ovarian cancer, “it is a diversified reality – highlights Berardi – representative of different worlds that in various capacities deal with patients with ovarian cancer”.
The OCC, the oncologist remarks, “has worked hard in recent months to be able to reach a consensus on the needs and objectives useful for the path of a patient with this neoplasm. And therefore some conclusions that have emerged forcefully will be brought to also the attention of the institutions. The possibility of accessing a test that can, from the perspective of precision medicine, offer therapeutic opportunities for patients, as well as the possibility of having a quality monitored, qualified, diagnostic and therapeutic path: these are some of the important objectives of the Ovarian Cancer Commitment”, he concludes.
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