Thousands of older women receive ‘shockingly inadequate’ ovarian cancer care when compared with younger women, meaning they are far less likely to survive the disease, experts have warned.
The over-70s face an average delay of five months before being referred to specialists, according to data collected by Ovarian Cancer Action – twice as long as the wait faced by younger women.
Also, many older ovarian cancer patients are not offered curative surgery to remove their tumours, and one in five receive no treatment at all.
According to the charity, the figures explain the disproportionately high mortality rate for women over 70 with ovarian cancer – nearly half die within a year of diagnosis, compared with the average figure of just under a third.