This weekend we’re in Bristol at We the Curious with Dr Elizabeth Dolan, Researcher at N/LAB at the University of Nottingham who’s PhD research looks at the use of shopping data, including loyalty card data, to see if women’s shopping habits can be connected to, or even predict an ovarian cancer diagnosis.

Writing in Ovacome’s Spring 2024 Magazine, Lizzie described the project, and Ovacome’s involvement. Lizzie said, “I first reached out to Ovacome for input on this project, knowing their good work supporting women with ovarian cancer. Ovacome let me attend events to meet women dealing with ovarian cancer, and supported developing my research proposal, ensuring the crucial patient perspective.

“Together we co-created an in-depth survey asking women about shopping experiences related to pre-diagnosis symptoms, like purchases aimed at managing bloating, pain, and fatigue. I also assessed if computational techniques could analyse shopping data to predict ovarian cancer diagnosis. This successful study is now published in the open-access Journal of Medical Internet Research Cancer (JMIR). It revealed changes in diet, clothing, and healthcare purchases, and showed those self-medicating on doctors’ advice had longer symptom duration before diagnosis. It also demonstrated potential for using AI (Artificial Intelligence) on this data to unveil symptom-related shopping habits and timing related to diagnosis. 

“My research centre, N/LAB at the University of Nottingham, investigates ethical uses of big data, behavioural science, and AI to generate health and retail insights for social good. We collaborated with the Cancer Loyalty Card Study (CLOCS) on their data linking ovarian cancer diagnosis to pain and indigestion medication purchases. Applying knowledge from our survey, we examined using machine learning (a type of AI) with this loyalty card data to improve predicting which women had ovarian cancer. Despite difficulties, it indicated potential, especially as sample sizes grow. Interestingly, key products were antacids (trapped wind products), clothes, and vitamins related to fatigue.”

Ovacome CEO Victoria said, “This research is really exciting. We all know the positive impact of earlier diagnosis in improving the treatment for ovarian cancer, and this is just one of the projects we are working on to help move that dial. We’re pleased to have worked with Lizzie and the team at the University of Nottingham in recent years, and it’s fantastic to see the results of that hard work at the We the Curious event this weekend.

“We will be here throughout the weekend, raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer, and letting people know to see their GP as soon as possible if they’re concerned.”

To read the magazine article in full visit: ovacome.org.uk/ovacome-magazine.

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