12 Mar 2009

Ovarian cancer treatment trial being held

3:07 pm on 12 March 2009

A new treatment aimed at helping women beat ovarian cancer is being trialed in Melbourne.

The ABC reports the Women's Cancer Foundation and Monash University are using low doses of chemotherapy to manipulate the immune cycles of 20 women to help their bodies fight the disease.

Blood samples will be taken every second day for two weeks to gauge what each woman's immune system is doing.

Professor Michael Quinn of the foundation says the treatment will be extended to 50 women if the early results are promising.

He says the success of the trial should be known in about 18 months.

Each year 800 women die and more than 1200 are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in Australia.