Carol Sprott was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2004. She had ignored her symptoms for years. By the time the disease was detected, it had spread.
"At that stage it is never cured," she says.
Since then, she's undergone countless rounds of chemotherapy and is on her third line of treatment.
Most ovarian cancer patients receive the same treatment regimen, but many don't respond well. Now doctors at the B.C. Cancer Agency may have the reason why.
Researchers studied tissue samples from 500 B.C. women who had ovarian cancer. They discovered ovarian cancer is not just one disease, but actually five different subtypes.
"Now we know these subtypes to very reliably diagnosed by a pathologists," says Dr. David Huntsman.
The information could one day lead to new therapies and allow doctors to individualize treatment.
"Now we have a roadmap which can lead us to finding better biomarkers first of all and ultimately cures of different subtypes," Dr. Huntsman says.
Still, more research needs to be done to determine what treatments work best on each subtype.
But Dr. Huntsman is confident that will happen.
"We believe very passionately and our data supports us if we take this approach ovarian cancer is a very solvable problem," he says.
And could make treatment for women like Carol easier.
"That might make it so that I have to go through treatment almost constantly over a four year period, so I can stay in remission longer," she says.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Dr. Rhonda Low
