Ovarian Cancer

Our research utilises epidemiological studies to evaluate risk factors for ovarian and also endometrial cancers in order to develop better strategies for their prevention. Current studies are focused on:

• Understanding racial and ethnic differences in ovarian cancer risk factors using international ovarian cancer consortia datasets [Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC), Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium (OC3)].

Our objective is to improve the health of women diagnosed with gynaecological cancers by studying modifiable factors that may influence survival following a cancer diagnosis. Current projects focus on:

• How the use of pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis aspirin and non-aspirin non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use may influence survival among ovarian cancer patients in the context of patient characteristics and tumour immune marker profiles. This project uses the exceptional resources in the Ovarian Cancer Cohort Consortium (OC3).
• The impact of demographic factors (country of birth, socioeconomic status and regionality) on ovarian cancer overall survival using NSW Health data from the Enduring Cancer Data Linkage (CanDLe), an initiative of the Cancer Institute NSW.

The team is developing an innovative predictive modelling platform, called Policy1–Ovary. This highly sophisticated tool is being used to assess the potential impact of different interventions for ovarian cancer. Specific projects include:

• Development of histology-specific models for epithelial ovarian cancer in Australia.
• Models focused on demographic factors (country of birth) and interventions (opportunistic salpingectomy and genetic testing for BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants) to evaluate how these factors may impact future incidence rates for different histological subtypes of ovarian cancer.

Using implementation science approaches, the team is conducting a process mapping investigation to understand the current referral processes for genetic (germline) testing and counselling for women with ovarian cancer and their families and somatic tumour testing for genes in the homologous recombination repair pathway which determine eligibility to receive PARP (poly ADP-ribose polymerase) inhibitor treatments. A focus of this work is to identify variation that may exist between clinical settings based on regionality or private health insurance status.