Would You Be Able to Spot the Signs of Ovarian Cancer?

Pierce Brosnan’s 41-year-old daughter Charlotte, whose wellness was affected by ovarian cancer, recently lost her brave three-year-battle with the disease. The legacy of Charlotte’s death is that it highlights that this type of cancer is notoriously difficult to detect, and it doesn’t just affect the wellbeing of women in their 60s. As it stands, less than 50% of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer survive longer than five years. This is a major health concern, as for women in the UK; ovarian cancer is the fourth biggest cancer risk.

However, according to Professor Hani Gabra, a world leading ovarian cancer expert and the Director of the Ovarian Cancer Research Centre at Imperial College, a new trial may be set to change that. ‘There is no screening test for ovarian cancer, and a lot of people are working on it,’ she said. ‘A huge CTOX trial is taking place with 200,000 women, who are attending GP surgeries and are being screened with ultrasound. The problem with screening is that at present, the tests aren’t sufficiently sensitive to detect ovarian cancer. So the consequences of doing a test and finding a lump in the pelvis is that you have to do an operation. If you have to do 40 operations to find one case you’ll end up killing someone. Where data has been published, it doesn’t seem to be beneficial, but this trial, the results of which will be published in 2015, may change that.’

Still, as screening remains an unavailable option, it’s vital that you learn to note the signs of ovarian cancer for yourself. This is worrying, as a new study reported in The Independent found that most women are unable to name one symptom of ovarian cancer. The Target Ovarian Cancer research revealed that almost six out of 10 of us, including those at higher risk, are unable to recall any of the 10 symptoms of the disease. Professor Gabra commented, ‘The key thing with the symptoms is if you are experiencing them on MOST days. If you go for a meal and get gastroenteritis, you’ll get all of those symptoms, but then it settles quite quickly. If you go to the GP – quite often – they will think of ovarian cancer straight away, others think it is a bug, which can lead to a wait.’