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One of the most well known facts about ovarian cancer is it is one of the most deadliest forms of cancer. Perhaps the second most known fact about ovarian cancer is the sooner it is detected the better, numerous studies show that the earlier a women is diagnosed with ovarian cancer the higher the survival rate. In fact, numbers show that women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer while it is confined within the ovaries (one of the earliest stages) have a 70 to 90 percent survival rate, compared to a 20 to 30 percent survival rate for women who are diagnosed with a more advanced stage.
With how well known this information is it should come as no surprise to women around the world that health care professionals are doing everything that they can to diagnose ovarian cancer as early as possible. Just recently, a study done by a team of researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that using a simple three-question survey on women can help detect woman who are at risk for developing ovarian cancer. The study involved 1,200 women who ranged in age from 40 to 87. Out of these 1,200 women, about 60 of them scored positive for symptoms with one of those women being diagnosed with ovarian cancer shortly after taking the survey. Out of the women who scored negative on the symptom survey, none of them were diagnosed with ovarian cancer during the course of the next year.
What this means for women is that by simply answering a few questions honestly it can be discovered sooner if the problems they are having are a sign that ovarian cancer might be present. What makes this survey even better is that it can be done as a part of a routine medical checkup, which can be done by a primary care doctor or even a gynecologist. By having this three question survey as part of a routine medical checkup the results will then be included in a woman’s medical history.
This three-question survey was not completed overnight; in fact, researchers spent a lot of time looking at various surveys that asked people about the current symptoms they were experiencing. While looking at all of these surveys researchers were looking to see how effective the questions were at weeding out certain symptoms a woman was experiencing. The survey that researchers are now proposing health care professionals use contains three straight forward questions that ask a woman if she has been suffering from more than one of the most common symptoms of ovarian cancer, which are pelvic or abdominal pain, bloating in the abdomen or even an increase in the size of their abdomen, and abnormal eating habits, such as feeling full after only a few bites.
Now asking whether a woman is suffering from any of these symptoms is not going to magically give a doctor a diagnosis because of these symptoms can also be a sign of other serious conditions. To determine if women need further testing the survey also asks about how often their symptoms occur, as well as when they started.
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