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Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.

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Speaker 1: You are our eyes and ears in the territory mixed

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Speaker 1: one oh four point nine.

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Speaker 2: Well, as you may be aware, today is Till Ribbon

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Speaker 2: Day and it is all about ovarian cancer awareness. Now

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Speaker 2: joining me on the line from Royal Darwin Hospital the

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Speaker 2: gynecological oncologist, doctor Michelle Harris. Good morning to you, Michelle.

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Speaker 1: Oh hi Katie, how are you really well?

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time today. We know

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Speaker 2: that very sadly, one woman dies every ten hours from

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Speaker 2: ovarian cancer in Australia. That statistic is just heartbreaking. How

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Speaker 2: important is it for us to you to be aware

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Speaker 2: of the signs and symptoms when it comes to ovarian cancer.

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Speaker 1: It's really tricky with ovarian cancer actually, because although we

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Speaker 1: have very good screening tests for a number of cancer types,

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Speaker 1: including breast cancer and savical cancer, we don't have a

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Speaker 1: successful way of screening for ovarian cancer. And the symptoms

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Speaker 1: that people get we can often pick them out retrospectively,

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Speaker 1: but that kind of common things like gaining a bit

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Speaker 1: of weight, it's feeling a bit bloated, feeling a bit nauseous,

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Speaker 1: not being as hungry as usual. So it is quite

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Speaker 1: a difficult one and it's one of the reasons why

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Speaker 1: women often present quite late, and so more than seventy

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Speaker 1: percent of ovarian councer presents for the first time in

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Speaker 1: stage three or four.

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Speaker 2: It's such a difficult thing to hear, and you know,

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Speaker 2: we know that when you're then looking at stage three

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Speaker 2: and four, the prognosis can be so much more difficult,

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Speaker 2: can't it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it really is a challenge and it's quite

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Speaker 1: shocking for the patients that have this diagnosis and their families.

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Speaker 1: It's there are some positive signs. We've got some additional treatments,

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Speaker 1: particularly for those women that have a hereditary type of

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Speaker 1: ovarian cancer, and we can also see that over time

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Speaker 1: survival in Australia has gotten better even for those late diagnoses.

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Speaker 1: There's a particular group that compares cancer outcomes throughout the

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Speaker 1: world and particularly putting Australia in with other high income countries,

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Speaker 1: and we perform very well in that we're right at

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Speaker 1: the top of ovarian cancer survival along with Norway. But nevertheless,

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Speaker 1: it's still a five year survival rate of about forty

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Speaker 1: six percent, which is shocking compared with some of the

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Speaker 1: other cancers.

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Speaker 2: It really is, doctor Harris, I know that you said

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Speaker 2: that it is. It is a difficult one in terms

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Speaker 2: of those signs and symptoms, But are these things that

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Speaker 2: we can look out for.

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Speaker 1: So I think if you're feeling like your clothes are

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Speaker 1: a little bit tighter, a bit of increased abdominal girth,

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Speaker 1: and you're eating less, so it's sort of out of

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Speaker 1: proportion of what you would think, Or if there's a

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Speaker 1: family history of breast or ovarian or bowel cancer, then

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Speaker 1: those are the sort of things that it's reasonable to

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Speaker 1: pop into your doctor and just has their missess whether

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Speaker 1: there's a significant risk or not. Also, feeling full quickly

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Speaker 1: is an unusual symptom, but one that we often notice

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Speaker 1: when we ask people who have a diagnosis that they

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Speaker 1: felt that was the case. So those are subtle things.

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Speaker 1: But as I said, if we had everyone going along

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Speaker 1: getting tested for ovarian cancer with those symptoms, it's often

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Speaker 1: a very non specific finding. So yeah, it's difficult.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And in the first instance, obviously you know, go

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Speaker 2: and have a talk to you GP.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, that's always the first point of call. And

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Speaker 1: we've got a great bunch of general practitioners in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory and they will sort of assess your risk

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Speaker 1: based on history of your symptoms, the examination findings, and

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Speaker 1: also your family history, and then they can arrange any

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Speaker 1: investigations as necessary.

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Speaker 2: Is there anything else that we should sort of know

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Speaker 2: or you know, or any way of really I guess

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Speaker 2: making us just a bit more aware of ovarian cancer

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Speaker 2: and you know, trying our best to keep an eye

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Speaker 2: out for thanks.

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Speaker 1: So I think the two things that maybe people don't realize.

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Speaker 1: One is that we do have quite a powerful preventative strategy,

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Speaker 1: and that's the common old oral contraceptive pill will decrease

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Speaker 1: the risk of ovarian cancer by about fifty percent, so

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Speaker 1: five zero percent wow menopausal women. So that's a sort

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Speaker 1: of little known positive benefit of the contraceptive. The other

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Speaker 1: thing that's important to know, and I think there have

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Speaker 1: been some famous people that have a hereditary ovarian cancer

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Speaker 1: or a risk of ovarian cancer, and that's contributed to

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Speaker 1: people having a little bit more awareness. So Angelina Jollie,

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Speaker 1: I know her mum had the breckagen, and so women

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Speaker 1: that carry the breckagen they can actually have risk reducing

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Speaker 1: surgery to prevent themselves developing ovarian cancer by more than

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Speaker 1: ninety percent. So it's about that awareness. And if you've

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Speaker 1: ever been diagnosed with ovarian cancer or someone in your

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Speaker 1: family has has that gene, then get tested yourself and

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Speaker 1: we can offer something that will prevent ovarian cancer.

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Speaker 2: Well, Royal Down Hospital Gynecological Oncologist, doctor Michelle Harris, I

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Speaker 2: really appreciate you having a chat with us today and

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Speaker 2: really making us more aware of ovarian cancer.

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Speaker 1: Oh, it's a pleasure, and I hope you're all wearing

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Speaker 1: your tear ribbons today.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, thank you very much. We really appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: Okay, thank you.

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Speaker 2: Doctor Michelle Harris there, and look, I know that this

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Speaker 2: is something that you know that is dear to a

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Speaker 2: lot of people's hearts. We lost our very wonderful friend

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Speaker 2: here of the radio station, Charlene, who used to work

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Speaker 2: here in sales to overian cancer. I know that it's

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Speaker 2: something that she championed so hard to make sure that

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Speaker 2: you know that we're more aware of this terrible illness

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Speaker 2: and more aware of some of those signs and symptoms.

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Speaker 2: And I know that they can be very difficult to detect.

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Speaker 2: But as you've heard there from from Michelle, you know,

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Speaker 2: if you have got that family history. If you have

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Speaker 2: also got those persistent signs, make sure that you go

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Speaker 2: and see your GP in the first instance, and just

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Speaker 2: be aware even if you want to head to you know,

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Speaker 2: to the Ovarian cancer it's a website and get a

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Speaker 2: bit more information about some of the different signs, just

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Speaker 2: to make sure that you're aware of your body and

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Speaker 2: aware of what's going on.