Don’t Overlook Campaign

Don’t Overlook is a campaign that urges women and primary care physicians (PCPs) to recognise ovarian cancer symptoms and understand the importance of a rapid diagnosis as well as access to and benefits of specialist care in treating the disease.

The campaign was developed by ESGO, the European Network of Gynaecological Cancer Advocacy Groups (ENGAGe), and AstraZeneca with funding provided by AstraZeneca, and is the second project under the OCC collaboration.

Despite advances in care, many women with ovarian cancer are only diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease, because the symptoms of ovarian cancer are non-specific.^1,2 Some estimates suggest that around 15% of women with ovarian cancer die within two months of diagnosis, with the average time for a woman to be diagnosed from first noticing symptoms being around seven months.^3,4*

There is still much to be done to ensure women receive their diagnosis before the disease has reached an advanced stage so they can potentially benefit from improved outcomes.¹ One such intervention is enabling access to specialist care which provides specialised assessment, surgical and systemic treatment in a high-volume setting.^4,5 Women who receive specialist care benefit from better treatment and survival outcomes versus those who do not.^4,6,7 However this care is often overlooked, due to a low level of awareness about its benefits as well as the significant global variation in its availability.⁴

By launching Don’t Overlook campaign, we aim to shine a light on the gaps in ovarian cancer care and urge women and physicians not to overlook ovarian cancer and to act on time and in the right way.

For more information, view the Press Release

* This is based on an analysis of the 2018 ‘Every Woman Study’