5 Annual Report 2021 Why we exist Who we are The OCRF is the largest non-governmental funder of ovarian cancer research in Australia and the major funder overall of research into early detection and diagnosis. We fund research that will save lives. Ovarian cancer kills three women in Australia every day. It is the most lethal female cancer. This year, more than 1720 Australian women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Only 791 will still be alive in five years. Despite the tragic human cost in terms of women and girls’ lives lost and families devastated, ovarian cancer research remains critically underfunded. As a result, little progress has been made in the last 45 years to prevent, detect and treat ovarian cancer. This is unacceptable. Ovarian cancer doesn’t have the profile or the celebrities that other cancers attract. We rely on brave women living with ovarian cancer to tell their stories. But, with such a low survival rate, most do not live very long. This tragic reality reflects the neglect we have seen in ovarian cancer research funding for almost half a century. The five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is 46 per cent, compared with 91 per cent for breast cancer, 83 per cent for uterine cancer and 71 per cent for cervical cancer. Improvements in survival rates for breast cancer came from dedicated research, early detection tests, public campaigns and advocacy. We should be proud that the federal government and Australians were steadfast in standing up for women with breast cancer. Now it’s ovarian cancer’s turn. Women and girls have waited too long. Raising awareness is not enough to save lives. Ovarian cancer symptoms are often vague and many women have no apparent symptoms until the cancer has spread – and in most cases it’s too late to treat effectively. A recent overview reports that 95 per cent of advanced stage disease diagnoses relate to a type of ovarian cancer that has a five-year survival rate of just 29 per cent. Early screening could save the lives of more than 8000 Australian women and 1.3m worldwide over a decade. When funding into ovarian cancer research is neglected, women die. The next generation of women deserves better. That’s why the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF) is fighting this deadly disease in the lab. We fund research that will have the greatest impact on the largest number of Australian women and girls. Our research helps those living with ovarian cancer today – and will save the lives of mothers, daughters, sisters and friends tomorrow. The lack of an early detection test remains the biggest barrier to improving survival rates. We have screening tests for early detection of breast and cervical cancer. But a cervical screening test (‘Pap smear’) does not detect ovarian cancer. And there’s nothing – yet – to detect ovarian cancer in its early stages. The OCRF is the largest funder of early detection research in Australia but we can’t keep doing it alone. History shows that where communities, governments and industry come together, big improvements in survival rates can be realised and countless lives saved. While ovarian cancer has been left behind, a focus and funding uplift can make it the success story of the next generation. Ovarian cancer kills women and girls in the prime of their lives. For almost half a century, these tragic outcomes have gone unchallenged. For our best shot at improving the chances of surviving this deadly disease, our collective challenge is to move the fight beyond researchers in the lab to more funding from government, corporates and communities.