Ovarian cancer rate cut by fifth ‘thanks to Pill’

Doctors say drop in HRT also helps

OVARIAN cancer rates among British women have dropped by more than a fifth in a decade, a major study has found.

Experts say the 22 per cent fall is down to rising use of the contraceptive Pill – which protects against ovarian cancer – and declining use of HRT, thought to increase the risk.

Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common form of the disease among British women, with almost 7,300 cases diagnosed each year and 4,128 deaths.

But incidence of the disease is falling, according to experts from the University of Milan, who led the global study. They said ovarian cancer rates in the UK fell from 7.51 per 100,000 women in 2002 to 5.86 per 100,000 in 2012 – a drop of 22 per cent.

The researchers said falling use of HRT to cope with the menopause, increasing use of the Pill, and a better detection rate and treatments had all combined to drive down cancer deaths.

The scientists, who compared ovarian cancer statistics across the world, found Britain had shown one of the steepest declines in rates. This, they said, was because more women in the UK had previously used HRT than in most other countries.

Use of the therapy plummeted after two major studies, published in 2002 and 2003, reported that it increased the risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and heart problems. In the UK, the number of women taking the drugs halved from two million to one million, and many doctors simply stopped prescribing the treatment.

Researcher Dr Eva Negri, whose work is published in the Annals of Oncology journal, said: ‘Women in countries such as Germany, the UK and the USA were more likely to use hormone replacement therapy to manage menopausal symptoms than in some other countries. The use of HRT declined after the report from

‘Takes the lives of so many women’

the Women’s Health Initiative in 2002 highlighted the increased risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as breast and ovarian cancer, and so this may also help to explain the fall in death rates among middle-aged and older women in these countries.’

The menopause, which women commonly undergo in their late 40s and early 50s, can cause depression, hot flushes, headaches and night sweats. In the long term it can also lead to bone disease and memory loss.

HRT tackles these symptoms by replacing the female sex hormones, oestrogen and progestogen, as the body stops producing them.

But while the drugs can transform the lives of many women, they also raise the risk of cancer – meaning that a small number will develop the disease who would otherwise not have. This is because some forms of cancer, including ovarian, are driven by hormones.

In contrast to HRT, the Pill works by suppressing the hormones that naturally stimulate the ovaries, reducing cancer risk. Although the drop in ovarian cancer rates in Britain was more than double the average 10 per cent fall seen across Europe, the UK still has a higher incidence than the rest of the EU. On average all 28 EU countries, including the UK, have an ovarian cancer rate of 5.19 per 100,000.

Katherine Taylor, head of the charity Ovarian Cancer Action, said: ‘Although the drop in the UK is significant, we’re still lagging behind our European counterparts and there is no reason this should be so ... More must be done to spread awareness and fund research into why the disease takes the lives of so many women in the UK before their time.’