Ovarian cancer survival statistics

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

We have created a central resources hub for Health Professionals which hosts all of our CRUK resources and further materials to help with managing the pandemic. We are updating the information as guidance changes. There is also a page specifically for patients on our about cancer hub.

Health Professional COVID-19 and Cancer Hub

Survival

Survive ovarian cancer for 10 or more years, 2013-2017, England and Wales

Age

Age that ovarian cancer survival is highest, 2009-2013, England

 

Improvement

Ovarian cancer survival in the UK has almost doubled in the last 40 years

71.7% of females survive ovarian cancer for at least one year, this falls to 42.6% surviving for five years or more, as shown by age-standardised net survival for patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer during 2013-2017 in England.[1]

Ovarian Cancer Age-Standardised One-, Five- and Ten-Year Net Survival, Adults (Aged 15-99), England, 2013-2017

The bar chart shows one- and five-year net survival and predicted ten-year net survival, with 95% confidence intervals. Open a glossary item
 

Ovarian cancer survival continues to fall beyond five years after diagnosis. 35.3% of females are predicted to survive their disease for ten years or more, as shown by age-standardised net survival for patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer during 2013-2017 in England.[1]

See also

Cancer survival statistics for common cancers in the UK

References

  1. Office for National Statistics, Cancer survival by stage at diagnosis for England, 2019.

About this data

Data is for England, 2013 - 2017, ICD-10 C67.

Survival statistics give an overall picture of survival and the survival time experienced by an individual patient may be much higher or lower, depending on specific patient and tumour characteristics.

Last reviewed:

Five-year survival for ovarian cancer is highest in the youngest women and decreases with increasing age. Five-year net survival ranges from 87% in 15-39 year-olds to 20% in 80-99 year-olds for patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer in England during 2009-2013.[1]

Ovarian Cancer (C56 and C57.0-C57.7), Five-Year Net Survival by Age, Women, England, 2009-2013

See also

Ovarian cancer incidence statistics by age

Ovarian cancer mortality statistics by age

Cancer survival statistics by age for all cancers in the UK

References

  1. Office for National Statistics. Cancer survival in England: adults diagnosed in 2009 to 2013, followed up to 2014. Newport: ONS; 2015.

About this data

Data is for: England, 2009-2013, ICD-10 C56 and C57.0-C57.7

Last reviewed:

As with most cancers, survival for ovarian cancer is improving. One-year age-standardised Open a glossary item net survival has increased from 44% during 1971-1972 to 72% during 2010-2011 in England and Wales – an absolute survival difference Open a glossary item of 29 percentage points.[1] Much of this increase can be attributed to the greater use of platinum-based chemotherapy.[2]

Ovarian Cancer (C56 and C57.0-C57.7), Age-Standardised One-Year Net Survival, Women (Aged 15-99), England and Wales, 1971-2011

Five-year age-standardised net survival for ovarian cancer has increased from 21% during 1971-1972 to a predicted survival of 46% during 2010-2011 in England and Wales – an absolute survival difference of 26 percentage points.[1] Wider access to optimal primary treatment and greater determination to treat recurrent disease is likely to have contributed to the increase.[2]

Ovarian Cancer (C56 and C57.0-C57.7), Age-Standardised Five-Year Net Survival, Women (Aged 15-99), England and Wales, 1971-2011

Five-year survival for 2010-2011 is predicted  using an excess hazard statistical model

Ten-year survival has increased by a lesser amount than one- and five-year survival since the early 1970s. Ten-year age-standardised net survival for ovarian cancer has increased from 18% during 1971-1972 to a predicted survival of 35% during 2010-2011 in England and Wales – an absolute survival difference of 16 percentage points.[1] Overall, more than a third of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer today are predicted to survive their disease for at least ten years.

Ovarian Cancer (C56 and C57.0-C57.7), Age-Standardised Ten-Year Net Survival, Women (Aged 15-99), England and Wales, 1971-2011

Ten-year survival for 2005-2006 and 2010-2011 is predicted using an excess hazard statistical model

See also

Ovarian cancer incidence trends over time

Ovarian cancer mortality trends over time

Cancer survival statistics for common cancers in the UK

References

  1. Data were provided by London School of Hygiene and Tropical  Medicine on request, 2014.
  2. Kitchener HC. Survival from cancer of the ovary in England and Wales up to  2001. Br J Cancer 2008;99 Suppl 1:S73-4.

About this data

Data is for: England and Wales, 1971-2011, ICD-10 C56 and C57.0-C57.7

Last reviewed:

Survival for ovarian cancer is strongly related to the stage of the disease at diagnosis.

One-year net survival by stage 

One-year net survival for ovarian cancer is highest for patients diagnosed at Stage 1, and lowest for those diagnosed at Stage 4, as 2013-2017 data for England show.[1] 98% of patients diagnosed at Stage 1 survived their disease for at least one year, compared to 54% of patients diagnosed at Stage 4.[1]

One year net survival for unknown or missing stage is 53%, while one year survival for unstageable cancer is 67%. Lack of staging information may in some cases reflect advanced stage at diagnosis as very unwell patients may not undergo staging tests if the invasiveness of the testing outweighs the potential benefit of obtaining stage information. Incomplete staging assessment may also be associated with socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of the patient [2]. Stage completeness for ovarian cancer was 85% in 2013-2017 [1].

Ovarian cancer one-year net survival by stage, with incidence by stage (all data: adults diagnosed 2013-2017, followed up to 2018)

Five-year net survival by stage 

Five-year net survival decreases from Stage 2 (68%) to Stage 3 (27%), a difference of 41 percentage points. [1]

Ovarian cancer five-year net survival by stage, with incidence by stage (all data: adults diagnosed 2013-2017, followed up to 2018)

References

  1. Office for National Statistics, Cancer survival by stage at diagnosis for England, 2019.
  2. Girolamo, C. et al, Characteristics of patients with missing information on stage: a population-based study of patients diagnosed with a colon, lung or breast cancer in England in 2013, BMC Cancer (2018) 18:492.

About this data

Data is for: England, 2013 - 2017, ICD-10 C56-C57.

Survival statistics give an overall picture of survival but the survival time experienced by an individual patient may be much higher or lower, depending on specific patient and tumour characteristics.

Survival statistics give an overall picture of survival and the survival time experienced by an individual patient may be much higher or lower, depending on specific patient and tumour characteristics.

Last reviewed:

Five-year relative survival for ovarian cancer in women in England (31%) is below the average for Europe (38%). Wales (32%), Scotland (34%) and Northern Ireland (32%) are also below the European average.[1] Across the European countries for which data is available, five-year relative survival in women ranges from 30% (Ireland) to 44% (Sweden).[1]

Ovarian Cancer (C56.9, C57.0-C57.4, C57.7), Age-Standardised Five-Year Relative Survival, Females (Aged 15+), European Countries, 2000-2007

Data consists of both observed and predicted 5-year relative survival. Where sufficient follow-up was not available for recently diagnosed patients the period approach was used to predict 5-year cohort survival.

Possible explanations for persistent international differences in survival include differences in cancer biology, use of diagnostic tests and screening, stage at diagnosis, access to high-quality care, and data collection practices.[1]

See also

Cancer diagnosis and treatment

Ovarian cancer incidence

References

  1. De Angelis R, Sant M, Coleman MP, et al. Cancer survival in Europe 1999-2007 by country and age: results of EUROCARE-5 - a population-based study. Lancet Oncol 2014;15:23-34

About this data

Data is for: 29 European countries, patients diagnosed in 2000-2007 and followed up to 2008, ovary and uterine adnexa cancer (C57.7).

Last reviewed:

Cancer stats explained

See information and explanations on terminology used for statistics and reporting of cancer, and the methods used to calculate some of our statistics.

Cancer stats explained

Citation

You are welcome to reuse this Cancer Research UK content for your own work.
Credit us as authors by referencing Cancer Research UK as the primary source. Suggested styles are:

Web content: Cancer Research UK, full URL of the page, Accessed [month] [year].
Publications: Cancer Research UK ([year of publication]), Name of publication, Cancer Research UK.
Graphics (when reused unaltered): Credit: Cancer Research UK.
Graphics (when recreated with differences): Based on a graphic created by Cancer Research UK.

When Cancer Research UK material is used for commercial reasons, we encourage a donation to our life-saving research.
Send a cheque payable to Cancer Research UK to: Cancer Research UK, 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ or

Donate online

Join the conversation and follow @CRUKHCPs for news, updates and opinion.

 @CRUKHCPs

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the many organisations across the UK which collect, analyse, and share the data which we use, and to the patients and public who consent for their data to be used. Find out more about the sources which are essential for our statistics.