Monitoring of over-the-counter medicine sales could diagnose ovarian cancer early
Principal investigator for the Cancer Loyalty Card Study, Dr James Flanagan, said: “Using shopping data, our study found a noticeable increase in purchases of pain and indigestion medications among women with ovarian cancer up to eight months before diagnosis, compared with women without ovarian cancer. "File photo
Data gathered from loyalty cards on over-the-counter medicines could help spot ovarian cancer up to eight months before diagnosis, new research has suggested.
A study led by Imperial College London found pain and indigestion medication purchases were higher among women who were later diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
The Irish Cancer Society has previously estimated about 400 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in Ireland, and it is the fourth most common cancer among women.
The study, the first of its kind for cancer, looked at whether there is a link between a diagnosis of ovarian cancer and a history of buying over-the-counter pain and indigestion medications.
Principal investigator for the Cancer Loyalty Card Study, Dr James Flanagan, said: “The cancer symptoms we are looking for are very common, but for some women, they could be the first signs of something more serious."
He added: “Using shopping data, our study found a noticeable increase in purchases of pain and indigestion medications among women with ovarian cancer up to eight months before diagnosis, compared with women without ovarian cancer. This suggests that long before women have recognised their symptoms as alarming enough to go to the GP, they may be treating them at home.”
Early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is key to improving chances of survival, he said. “We hope this research can lead to ovarian cancer symptoms being picked up earlier and improve patients’ options for treatment,” he said.
The study notes early symptoms of ovarian cancer can be unclear in origin as they include loss of appetite, stomach pain and bloating. “This results in many people with ovarian cancer being diagnosed late, often when the cancer has already spread, and when their likelihood of survival has greatly reduced,” the study states.
Researchers from Imperial College London, UCL and the University of Birmingham included loyalty card data from two UK-based high street retailers of 273 women over a six-year period. Some 153 were women who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, 120 were women who had not.
The study was funded by Cancer Research UK, and published on Friday as Association Between Purchase of Over-the-Counter Medications and Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis in the Cancer Loyalty Card Study (CLOCS) in the journal JMIR Public Health and Surveillance.
