History and Progress

In the late 1990s, Professor Ian Jacobs was devastated by the number of women he was seeing in his clinic who subsequently died of ovarian cancer. He was determined to do something about it.

Over the next few years, he developed a vision for a ground breaking ten year programme that would be at the forefront of ovarian cancer research. It was estimated that this would cost at least £36 million so the Gynaecology Cancer Research Fund (GCRF) was established, and the first £28 million of core funding raised from Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health.

In 2001, The Eve Appeal was set up (so called because of its focus on gynaecological cancers – the ‘source of life’). Eve was launched to the public in 2005 with the target of raising the remaining £5 million required to complete the programme.

Excellent progress has been made to date with  £2.4M raised going directly to Professor Jacobs’ research programme.

This funding has had a vital impact exciting progress across a range of research areas over the last few months. The following are just three examples:

The screening trial is starting to detect ovarian cancers in women who thought they were healthy and have been unaware of the development of the disease through any symptoms. It has been possible to refer them immediately for appropriate treatment

A team of Eve Appeal funded researchers has found evidence that stem cells are the cells of origin for cancer. This is ground breaking work which opens up a completely new opportunity to identify women at risk of ovarian or breast cancer independently of their family history.

CA125 is a protein released into the blood which can indicate the development of certain cancers. It is the most reliable marker of this type at the moment and is widely used for detection of ovarian cancer. From Eve Appeal funded proteomics work (studying the release of proteins into the blood as potential indicators of the development of cancer) it looks as if there may be markers capable of early detection of ovarian cancer before CA125. This needs confirmation through further studies, but this area of work has huge potential and progress so far has been encouraging.

Only £2.6 million is now urgently required by 2010.

We are already considering other ways of making a similar impact on other gynaecological cancer research from 2011 and beyond. 

"The huge progress of this research programme over recent years could not have happened without the support of so many organisations and individuals who have fundraised tirelessly for us - work that The Eve Appeal is now continuing. In particular, I am proud to acknowledge the fantastic support of the charity ROC, its patrons and supporters, and especially Michael Ball's fans who worked so hard for us when the research was first started. Without the funds ROC provided for our pilot studies we would not have been able to continue this work to the point at which major funding totalling over £20m was obtained. That phase of the work was a stressful and difficult time for all involved and it took sustained determination and dedication from the ROC Trustees and all of our team to keep things going. A programme of this size, complexity and longevity needs ongoing support over extended periods of time to enable it to achieve the breakthroughs that really will save women's lives and every fundraising contribution really does matter. Ultimately for all of us the key is whether or not we are successful in making a difference for women with ovarian cancer and the combined efforts of many hundreds of thousands of people over more than 20 years is now yielding important progress"

Professor Ian Jacobs
Medical Director