What should women know about ovarian cancer?

• This type of cancer can cause vague symptoms, including abdominal pain and urinary or bowel symptoms, which should not be ignored if they persist or worsen.
• Ovarian cancer is linked to genetic conditions, so knowing your family history and having genetic testing is important to help prevent this type of cancer.

May 2024. – Despite years of research, experts have still not developed a test to diagnose ovarian cancer at an early stage.

This type of cancer tends to spread easily from the ovary to other organs in the abdomen and pelvis, such as the intestines, lymph nodes, liver and abdominal wall, explains Dr. Adria Suárez Mora, a gynaecologic oncology specialist at Cleveland Clinic.

The ovaries are part of the female reproductive system, and cancer occurs when abnormal cells grow in the ovaries or fallopian tubes and multiply uncontrollably.

The ovarian cancer symptoms women are most likely to notice are pain, discomfort, pelvic or abdominal bloating, changes in eating habits, feeling full after small meals and loss of appetite.

She noted that other signs may include abdominal changes, such as diarrhoea or constipation, and needing to urinate more often (frequent urination). If these signs appear, she recommends booking a visit with a doctor straight away.

The Cleveland Clinic specialist says the exact cause of ovarian cancer is not yet known. However, ovarian cancer is linked to genetic conditions. It is important to know your family history and to consider genetic testing.

Other risk factors include being Native American or white, being over 60, starting menstruation early or having a late menopause.

Other variables include a family history of ovarian cancer and having inherited a genetic mutation such as BRCA1/2 or other mutations. There are many other less common genetic mutations that increase the risk.

Never having been pregnant and having endometriosis can also increase the risk of ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer can only be diagnosed by biopsy. Other imaging tests, such as pelvic ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET), may be carried out to help guide the diagnosis or determine the extent of the disease.

In addition, some blood tests, such as the CA125 tumour marker, may be raised when a patient has ovarian cancer. Sometimes the diagnosis is only made after surgical exploration and removal of ovarian cysts or abnormal pelvic masses.

Laparoscopic surgery is a minimally invasive procedure to examine the inside of the abdomen and pelvis, in which a thin camera (laparoscope) is inserted through a small cut (incision) in the abdomen. “With this procedure, we can assess whether cancer is present, take staging biopsies and, in some circumstances, even perform complete ovarian cancer surgery,” said the specialist.