University of South Australia (UniSA) researcher Dr Amanda Lumsden and a transdisciplinary team are jointly designing an ovarian cancer symptom assessment tool.

According to the university, ovarian cancer's five-year survival rate stands at 49%, largely due to late-stage diagnosis and treatment delays.

Symptoms are said to be often non-specific and overlooked by both patients and healthcare professionals. To address these issues, the team is developing an assessment tool for this widespread fatal reproductive cancer.

This initiative is supported by a A$45,087 (approximately $29,146) Catalyst grant from Health Translation SA.

UniSA noted that through the online ovarian cancer symptom scoping survey, its researchers will collect essential feedback from individuals who have experienced this cancer, along with clinicians, to develop a prototype tool detailing potential symptoms and the risk factors of ovarian cancer.

This groundwork is expected to enable a comprehensive study to evaluate the prototype's performance.

Dr Lumsden said that, in contrast to breast and cervical cancers, which can be detected early through mammograms and cervical screening tests, there are currently no public screening programmes for the early detection of ovarian cancer.

Dr Lumsden commented: “Women with ovarian cancer may experience non-specific symptoms for up to two or more years before the tumour becomes clinically apparent, and often do not connect these symptoms with cancer. By then, the tumour has usually progressed to an advanced stage.

“We are hoping to identify common symptoms, patterns, and themes experienced by people who have experienced an ovarian cancer diagnosis and use these findings to inform the development of the tool.”

Last month, UniSA researchers announced that they were working on a laparoscopic probe development for gastrointestinal cancers using quantum technology. This initiative received financial support from the federal government's Economic Accelerator Ignite Grant.