Ovarian cancer is the most fatal form of cancer among women, but funding for research into the disease is low compared to other cancers. Ovarian Cancer Canada is calling for that to change, asking Canadians to press the government for more funding.

Close to 2,800 Canadian women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year, says Elisabeth Baugh, the CEO of Ovarian Cancer Canada.

“Thankfully, that number is not too high. However, because there’s no screening or early diagnostic test, 56 per cent of those women will not survive five years,” she told CTV’s Your Morning Monday.

Ovarian cancer grows slowly, typically not creating symptoms such as bloating and abdominal discomfort until it is well advanced. That is, in part, why it kills half of those diagnosed within five years.

Breast cancer, on the other hand, has a five-year mortality rate of only 13 per cent; prostate cancer has a five-year mortality rate of just five per cent. Those rates used to be much higher, but have dropped after years of investment in research.

Breast cancer receives $119.5 million a year in funding, while prostate cancer gets $52.8 million. Ovarian cancer, though, receives only $27.1 million a year.

“When you look at the low investment in ovarian cancer and the high mortality rate, you can see the difference that research has made. And that’s what we want,” says Baugh.

Earlier this year, Ovarian Cancer Canada began a campaign seeking signatures on a petition calling on the federal to make an immediate additional investment of $10 million, to advance research.

That petition received thousands of signatures. But the federal government responded by saying that current research investment in all forms of cancer is helping to inform the understanding of ovarian cancer as well.

Baugh disagrees, saying ovarian cancer is not like other cancers.

“It metastasizes, or spreads, very differently from other cancers,” she said, adding there are also are many subtypes of the disease.

Despite advances in other forms of cancer, survival rates for ovarian cancer haven’t budged in 50 years. There also haven’t been any new treatments in 20 years.

Ovarian Cancer Canada now wants Canadians to write letters to their local members of Parliament to ask for more funding, and has created a draft letter on their website to get Canadians started. http://www.ovariancanada.org/get-involved/advocate

Baugh believes that, with the enormous advances in personalized medicine, ovarian cancer treatment is poised for a breakthrough. That’s why she wants to see more invested in research right away to develop new treatments and fund the clinical trials to test them.

“We believe that $10 million is a reasonable ask and it will make a difference in the short term,” she said. “We will see survival rates change.”