Ovarian Cancer: Early Warning Signs

Article by healthybalance.com staff
Posted on July 09, 2008

One of the most frightening diagnoses a woman can get is ovarian cancer—a cancer that strikes about one of every 70 women. You may have heard that ovarian cancer is hard to detect until it is too late to treat. However, recent studies have discovered that in its early stages, ovarian cancer does have symptoms—though they are subtle and too often ignored.

“Ovarian cancer is called ‘the silent killer,’” says Barbara Yawn, M.D., director of research at Olmsted Medical Center, who led one of the studies with Mayo Clinic. “We know now that there are symptoms, yet it appears that women ignore them and physicians don’t recognize the potential urgency of evaluating the symptoms.”

20+ symptoms, 6 warning signs
Researchers found more than 20 symptoms experienced by women in the early stages of ovarian cancer. The six most common and noticeable include:
1.Difficulty eating
2.Feeling full quickly
3.Pelvic pain
4.Abdominal pain
5.Increased abdominal size
6.Bloating

“If a woman has these symptoms and they are new to her and frequent, that would be a very good time to request the blood test and ultrasound in order to rule out ovarian cancer as a possible source of these symptoms,’’ says researcher M. Robyn Andersen, Public Health Sciences Division at the Hutchinson Center.

Other possible symptoms of ovarian cancer are fatigue, back pain, constipation, urinary frequency and urgency. “My surprise with our findings was at the urinary incontinence, because it’s not something that has been reported often,” adds Brigitte Barrette, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gynecologist and study investigator. “Sudden or marked change in urinary leakage was a symptom. So, incontinence problems that develop over a period of just a few weeks are something to pay attention to.”

Don’t wait, investigate
Because these symptoms can indicate so many other less serious conditions, women and their physicians often overlook them or adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Barrette cautions that when treatment options do not alleviate these symptoms, ovarian cancer should be considered—and soon. “If the symptoms persist and there is not a clear reason, you need to look further,” she says. “We know if ovarian cancer is detected at an earlier stage, the survival is about 90 percent; we know that an early stage can make a difference.”