Around 18% of all cancers which develop in the female reproductive organs are considered very rare.

Entirely supported by the Cancer Treatment and Research Trust, RaNGO is an on-going project run from Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Northwood. (RaNGO stands for Rare Neoplasms of Gynaecological Origin)

The purpose of this study is to obtain more information about specific rare gynaecological cancers. The information from the study will help doctors to better understand how these rare cancers are diagnosed and managed at present so that in the future they can be more confident about what treatments to offer patients.

The project is creating an anonymised national registry of patients with these specific rare gynaecological cancers

Patients with gynaecological cancers are treated at 34 centres across the UK. These centres are only likely to see 15 new patients per year with each type of rare cancer. The low numbers of these cancers means that no single doctor or centre in the UK (or internationally) can hope to gain sufficient experience to be able to confidently treat patients with these specific types of cancer. At present doctors base their treatment on discussions with more experienced colleagues, published case reports and common sense.

Information about the rare gynaecological cancer, and any other significant medical conditions, together with any treatments (now, and in the longer term) will be collected from each hospital and entered anonymously into the RaNGO database.

RaNGO will also facilitate the donation of tissue, obtained from any operations or biopsies from these patients, for future scientific research. A RaNGO Tissue Bank will store all of these samples at the Human Tissue Resource Centre, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London.

Many other countries have similar initiatives underway and ultimately we will use the RaNGO results to collaborate with international colleagues.

Your support will enable the database to be maintained, allowing clinicians from across the country to decide on the best treatment options for patients with these rare gyneacological cancers.

£10 could purchase blood tubes to collect samples to store in the tissue bank for further research

£25 could pay for secure transportation of a sample to the tissue bank

£50 could pay for the analysis of 5 blood samples

By donating today you are helping more women to be successfully treated and cured of their disease. Together we can save lives.

The next step for this project is to explore clinical trials of novel treatments for patients with these rare cancers and pave the way to better treatments and one day hopefully a cure.