News Tonight

Every year, more than 140,000 women tend to die because of lethal ovarian cancer that can be considered as one of the most deadly form of the gynecological cancers. Various reports have marked the ovarian cancer as the seventh most common cause of cancer mortality among women, particularly in Philippines, and second major cause of death from gynecologic cancer.

As pet the reports, Philippines had witnessed as many as 2,165 new ovarian cancer diagnoses as well as 1,016 deaths earlier in the year 2010. The ovarian cancer is likely to affect elderly women aged 40 and above and its chances tend to increase with the passage of age.

Consequently, as an attempt the drag the number of ovarian cancer related deaths to minimum level, renowned pharmaceutical company Roche has announced to increase the availability of its targeted therapy bevacizumab.

Simultaneously, the Philippine Food and Drug Administration permitted to prescribe bevacizumab along with standard chemotherapy for women struggling with advanced form of deadly ovarian cancer.

On the other hand, the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists of the Philippines has applauded the news. Further, the SGOP has also expressed excitement over the positive outcome of clinical trials that have suggested prescribing bevacizumab as a first line treatment.

“The evidence from these clinical trials support the use of bevacizumab combined with standard chemotherapy as a treatment option for our patients with ovarian cancer”, commented the President of SGOP, Dr. Gil Gonzalez. In addition, Dr. Gil Gonzalez has admired the treatment particularly for a group of patients who have not reflected good results standard chemotherapy alone and marked it as excellent news for health experts as well as women fighting with ovarian cancer with restricted treatment alternatives.

Persistent bloating, Abdominal pain, Irregular periods are a few of the alarming symptoms of the disease, However, symptoms of ovarian cancer are uncertain and therefore increases the chances of misdiagnose or remained unidentified until advanced stage.