The survival rate for ovarian cancer varies up to 20% according to the specialist who treats

Ovarian cancer affects five per 100,000. Despite its low incidence, it ranks as the fifth leading cause of cancer death among Spanish women. In our country every year are detected 3000 new cases of this tumor and the prognosis of these patients and, specifically, the survival can vary by up to 20 percent if the professional treating them is a gynecologic oncologist. This is different experts have said during the presentation of the Third International Congress on Gynecologic Cancer MD Anderson, organized by the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Madrid, in collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston which is being held these days in Madrid. Nearly 500 national and international experts under the title "Shaping the Future", will discuss the latest advances in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of specific cancers for women.

Advances in surgery and improvements in medical treatment with chemotherapy have improved survival of patients in recent years. Still, "it is important to have specific training programs to teach gynecologists to treat these tumors," said Dr. Richard Barakat, chief of Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York (United States) . The time it takes for symptoms of the disease on to face, coupled with the scarcity of available methods to diagnose actulidad, 'cause in 85 percent of cases are detected when the tumor is at an advanced stage "EXPICA the Chief of Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Madrid, Antonio Gonzalez. Moreover, "the five-year survival does not exceed 25-30 percent, but it is general statistics because" when you see the results that are achieved in highly specialized centers, the rates are higher. " However, Gonzalez warns that "in Spain there is no specific training to operate and gynecological cancer often do gynecologists or general surgeons, although they are good professionals, they have this level of specialization for these processes. In addition, a patient "does not have available a list of reference centers in this area because there are none," he adds.

One of the most important topics of the conference will be the role currently played by surgery in the treatment of these tumors. Specifically, radical surgery will be assessed as a therapy for ovarian cancer, "because it is a definitive therapeutic tool to modify the survival of patients," said Dr. Luis Chiva, Chief of Gynecology at MD Anderson Cancer Center and director of Madrid. In this line, experts maintain an open debate on the desirability of approaching the starting ovarian cancer surgical treatment or chemotherapy, and how these strategies can alter the survival of each patient.

The preservation of fertility in patients with tumors of the body and the cervix is ​​another topic for the meetings of the congress. In this sense, specialists will study in depth all the conservative solutions of fertility in early stages, along with medical treatment along with surgical treatments.

In recent years, the clinical results obtained with the antiangiogenic drug therapy postulate this strategy as one of the newest treatments for patients with ovarian cancer because they get to block the formation of new blood vessels, a process essential for growth and progression tumors.