Survival in Elderly Ovarian Cancer Remains Challenging in the Nordic Countries.

Simple Summary: Ovarian cancer has been the most fatal female-specific cancer, and in particular, old patients have worse survival compared to young patients. In this study, we test whether the current oncology practice has been able to improve survival, compared to age group-specific past survival. We were able to show that survival in old patients remains poor, and in all patients, the time after year 1 is a critical period for survival. Although survival in ovarian cancer has improved in the Nordic countries over the past 50 years, age-related disparities have remained, or even increased. Survival has not increased for patients older than 60 years after one year of survival. This study calls for more focus on elderly ovarian cancer patients, to aim for early diagnosis and to explore more active therapeutic intervention for which age should not be considered limiting but rather the physical condition. Background: Despite treatment having improved through intensive surgical procedures and chemotherapy—and more recently, targeted therapies—ovarian cancer is the most fatal female cancer. As such, we wanted to analyze age-specific survival trends for ovarian cancer in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden over the past 50 years, with a special aim of comparing survival development between the age groups. Methods: We modelled survival data from the NORDCAN database for 1-, 5- and conditional 5/1-year relative (between years 1 and 5) survival for ovarian cancer from 1972 to 2021. Results: Young patients had a 70% 5-year survival while the survival was only 30% for the oldest patients. Conditional survival showed that survival between years 1 and 5 did not improve for patients older than 60 years throughout the 50-year period, during which time the gaps between the youngest and the oldest patients widened. Conclusions: Improvement in 1-year survival was so large that it masked the modest development between years 1 and 5, resulting in a widening age disparity in 5-year survival. The current treatment practices, which appear increasingly effective for younger patients, have not helped remedy the large age differences in ovarian cancer survival. Early detection methods and therapeutic innovations are urgently needed, and aged patients need a special focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]