The computer program, designed from a mathematical model, is capable of predicting when the surgical team will be able to perform optimal surgery or not, as explained by the Generalitat in a statement.
An optimal surgery completely eradicates the tumor, while a suboptimal surgery fails to eliminate it completely. This second situation is associated with a high morbidity rate and also compromises the patient’s prognosis. Hence the importance of being able to count on the ‘software’ to make the right decisions and minimize the number of suboptimal surgeries.
The program is being tested, among others, at the General Hospital of Valencia, Hospital Clínic Universitari de València, Vall d’Ebron Hospital, Navarra Hospital Complex, October 12 Hospital and Son Espases Hospital.
The objective is to carry out a broad and robust validation of the clinical model and, ultimately, to validate its universal use as a predictive model of the quality of surgery for advanced ovarian cancer, explains the director of the Multidisciplinary Unit of Abdominal Oncology Surgery. Pelvic of the General University Hospital of Castelló, Antoni Llueca.
INCIDENCE OF 9.1 CASES IN THE COMMUNITY
The incidence of this pathology in the Valencian Community stood at 9.1 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020 (almost 6 points less than in 2010, when it was around 15 per 100,000 inhabitants). The data is released on the occasion of World Ovarian Cancer Day, which is commemorated every May 8 with the purpose of raising awareness about this pathology.
This incidence rate, always according to the 2020 data analyzed by the Epidemiological Studies and Health Statistics Service of the General Directorate of Public Health and Addictions of the Conselleria de Sanitat, does not present statistically significant differences by province. On the other hand, it is noted that the number of new diagnoses increases as the years go by, with the average age of diagnosis being 61.
Specifically, a total of 252 of the 8,916 new cases of cancer in 2020 were ovarian, that is, almost 3% of all tumors. Therefore, without being one of the most frequent tumors, its aggressiveness makes it one of those that most compromises survival.
In fact, in 2020, ovarian cancer was responsible for 228 deaths in the Valencian Community (almost 5% of all cancer deaths in women, behind breast, colorectal, lung and pancreatic cancers).
EARLY DIAGNOSTIC
Due to tumor staging at diagnosis, survival worsens as the cancer spreads and reaches metastatic stages. Hence the importance of early diagnosis and early treatment. As explained by the head of the Gynecological Oncology Unit of the Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe, Santiago Domingo, “unfortunately, the symptoms are slow and unspecific (sense of swelling, fatigue, poorly defined abdominal pain), becoming confused with other clinical situations “.
Once suspected, Santiago continued, imaging and analytical tests are crucial to reach a diagnosis, which is confirmed with abdominal biopsies. At this point, it is crucial that patients are treated in experienced centers and by multidisciplinary teams composed, among other professionals, of pathologists, radiologists and medical oncologists.
The Conselleria has recognized four reference centers: Hospital General Universitari de Castellón, Hospital General de Elche and, in Valencia, Hospital Provincial and Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe. The latter, La Fe, is accredited as an Ovarian Cancer Center of Excellence by the European Society of Gynecological Oncology, which has also recently recertified it as a Training Center for subspecialists in gynecological oncology.
In addition, in the case of women at high risk of hereditary ovarian cancer, and also breast cancer, the Ministry offers the Genetic Counseling Program in Hereditary Cancer. “This is really important, due to the appearance of new therapeutic strategies that are changing the prognosis of this disease in women who are carriers of certain mutations in the tumour”, concluded Domingo.
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