Early symptoms of ovarian cancer

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Many women diagnosed with ovarian cancer do, in fact, complain of symptoms in the few months before the disease is found, according to a new study.
Ovarian cancer is often described as a silent killer, because it is often not diagnosed until it is well advanced. But now a team at the University of California reveals that, in fact, many women do exhibit early symptoms of the disease which could be followed up.

They compared a group of nearly 2,000 women with ovarian cancer with a group of over 6,000 with breast cancer and nearly 11,000 with no cancer. As early as 12 months before diagnosis, those with ovarian cancer were at least twice as likely as the other women to go to their doctor with abdominal swelling or pelvic pain. And as early as nine months before the diagnosis, the women with ovarian cancer were twice as likely to complain of abdominal pain.

Overall, 40 per cent in the ovarian cancer group had visited the physician once or more for abdominal or pelvic symptoms between 36 and four months before diagnosis. Only 25 per cent of ovarian cancer patients had pelvic imaging or testing for blood levels of CA125 - a 'marker' for the disease - during this time. Mostly they had abdominal imaging or gastrointestinal studies, which would be less likely to lead to a correct diagnosis. But over half did receive pelvic imaging or CA125 testing three months before diagnosis. Maybe a different approach, as suggested by these findings, might lead to earlier diagnosis.

Source
Cancer online 22nd August 2005 (print 1st October)