March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and with around 7,400 diagnoses in the UK each year, it’s the 6th most common cancer in women and in 2019 Legal & General paid out on 142 claims.
As with many forms of cancer, early diagnosis of ovarian cancer can improve chances of survival.
Survival of ovarian cancer depends on several factors, including type and stage of the cancer, level of fitness and previous treatment.
While there are no UK-wide statistics for ovarian cancer, the following are England’s statistics for survival of ovarian cancer for 5 years or more after being diagnosed between 2013 and 2017.:
- Stage 1 – Almost 95% will survive their cancer
- Stage 2 – Almost 70% will survive their cancer
- Stage 3 – More than 25% will survive their cancer
- Stage 4 – Almost 15% will survive their cancer
Raising awareness of ovarian cancer
To raise awareness Ovarian Cancer Action and Target Ovarian Cancer are inviting people to take part in their step challenges through March.
The awareness month also opens the opportunity to talk about the need for personal protection, particularly Critical Illness Cover.
How protection can help
Having a critical illness protection policy in place for your clients could make a big difference to their future financial situation. If they receive an ovarian cancer diagnosis during their policy lifetime and make a valid claim, a payout could help ease financial strain while your client undergoes treatment and recovery.
Find out more about Legal & General’s critical illness cover
Please note, not all types of cancer are covered under critical illness plans, and permanent symptoms may be needed to claim for some illnesses.
Source – Cancer survival by stage at diagnosis for England, 2019– Office for National Statistics. These statistics are for net survival. Net survival estimates the number of people who survive their cancer rather than calculating the number of people diagnosed with cancer who are still alive. In other words, it is the survival of cancer patients after taking into account that some people would have died from other causes if they had not had cancer.
