'Symptom triggered testing', prompted by symptoms such as pain, abdominal bloating/swelling, and feeling full soon after starting to eat, can pick up early stage aggressive ovarian cancer in 1 in 4 of those affected, finds a data analysis, published online in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer. And complete surgical removal of the cancerous tissue was possible in 60% of those diagnosed in this way. The findings challenge the assumption that symptoms always signal advanced disease in women with ovarian cancer, conclude the researchers.
Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cause of cancer death in the UK. But while most (93%) women diagnosed with early-stage disease (I or II) survive for more than 5 years, only 13% of those diagnosed with advanced disease (stages III or IV) do so. Mounting evidence suggests that symptoms precede diagnosis by between 3 months and 3 years, but symptoms are often vague, making early detection difficult, explain the researchers.
But symptoms such as pain, abdominal swelling and/or bloating, and feeling full soon after starting to eat are associated with ovarian cancer, and warrant urgent investigation, or 'symptom triggered testing.' The UK adopted symptom-triggered testing for ovarian cancer in 2011. Women, especially those over the age of 50 with these symptoms, are tested for levels of the tell-tale protein CA125 in their blood and given an ultrasound scan.
Abnormal results prompt a fast track referral to a gynecologist within .