By THERESA HOGUE
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Tuesday, September 2, 2008 12:00 am
Its symptoms are often confused with problems such as irritable bowel syndrome. It can go undetected during annual medical exams. And its mortality rate is 70 percent.
Ovarian cancer will be diagnosed in some 21,650 women in the United States this year, according to the National Cancer Institute. About 15,520 of those women will die of the disease. And Oregon has among the highest ovarian cancer mortality rates in the country, according to Dr. Gayle Roberts, an oncologist with Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.
Roberts said the reason ovarian cancer is so deadly is the symptoms are relatively mild.
"It doesn't cause a lot of distress until it's too late," he said. Its symptoms include abdominal pain, bloating and difficulty eating, which leads some doctors to treat patients for lesser digestive ailments, missing the real problem.
The most effective diagnostic test for the disease is an ultrasound of the ovaries, often an expensive procedure.
Dr. Mary Austin-Seymour, a radiation oncologist and radiologist at Good Samaritan, said no known effective screening for ovarian cancer exists at this time. Currently the best way to detect ovarian cancer in its early stages is to look for symptom constellations, that is, a cluster of symptoms that are similar in most ovarian cancer cases.
Those symptoms include abdominal system problems, pelvic pain and getting full quickly. If a woman suddenly develops all those symptoms at the same time, and has them more than 12 times a month, it might be a good idea to ask for an ovarian ultrasound.
Although a majority of ovarian cancer cases happen in older women, women as young as 30 can contract the disease. Women with a familiar history of ovarian cancer can benefit from a pelvic exam and an ovarian ultrasound, Austin-Seymour said.
When a patient is diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the treatment typically begins with surgery to remove the tumor or other cancerous growth, and then chemotherapy treatment.
Research is continuing into how to detect ovarian cancer at an earlier stage. For now, Roberts and Austin-Seymour say, the best advice is for women to be aware of changes in their bodies, regardless of their age, and to be advocates for themselves if they feel their medical provider isn't listening.
"Don't accept an unreasonable answer," Roberts said.