With ovarian cancer continuing to have a devastating outcome for many women, new research at the Kolling Institute is offering hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The disease has the lowest survival rate of any women\u2019s cancer, with only 48 per cent of women living beyond five years after diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late because the symptoms are vague, like bloating, nausea, indigestion, excessive tiredness, and a change in bowel habits, and unlike other cancers, there is no early diagnostic test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Emily Colvin from the Kolling says there is hope following some promising advances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her team has identified new genes involved in the spread of ovarian cancer, and they are now also focusing on the role of the tumour microenvironment, which provides the support network for the tumour cells to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWe have been investigating the role of a specific cell in the ovarian tumour microenvironment called a cancer-associated fibroblast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have identified new genes that are switched on in these fibroblasts and influence ovarian tumour spread. These genes may play a role in how tumours avoid destruction by the immune system,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKnowledge of the genes involved in the initiation of ovarian cancer will help us develop effective treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe microenvironment plays a huge role in how a patient will respond to therapy or develop resistance to drugs, or whether the cancer will metastasise, yet it has been largely ignored in ovarian cancer research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy understanding how cancer cells communicate with their microenvironment, we will be able to better target them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are really interested in trying to discover why the microenvironment in ovarian cancer is a bit different to other cancers and why it\u2019s more resistant to immunotherapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are also keen to get started with liquid biopsy research. It\u2019s radically replacing the need for tissue biopsy with blood tests that can tell us about a patient\u2019s tumour. This has the potential to really change the way we treat all cancers, but particularly ovarian tumours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe would like to see more research funding and advocacy so that we can really change outcomes. We\u2019ve seen that with breast cancer, but we just don\u2019t get that type of funding for gynaecological cancers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe hope that with greater support, we could accelerate the development of an early diagnostic test, which would save so many lives.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2175,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"research-group-tax":[],"primary-research-area":[],"class_list":["post-2174","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Emily-Colvin-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Emily-Colvin-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Emily-Colvin-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop-300x207.webp",300,207,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Emily-Colvin-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Emily-Colvin-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Emily-Colvin-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/thumb_Blog_Emily-Colvin-cropped_w550_h380_fcrop.webp",550,380,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ict-wordpress-support@sydney.edu.au","author_link":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/author\/ict-wordpress-supportsydney-edu-au\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"With ovarian cancer continuing to have a devastating outcome for many women, new research at the Kolling Institute is offering hope. The disease has the lowest survival rate of any women\u2019s cancer, with only 48 per cent of women living beyond five years after diagnosis. Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late because the symptoms are…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5420,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2174\/revisions\/5420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174"},{"taxonomy":"research-group-tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-group-tax?post=2174"},{"taxonomy":"primary-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary-research-area?post=2174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}