Ovarian Cancer,Symptoms and Treatments

Ovarian cancer symptoms are also at times confused for ovarian cysts, non-cancerous growths and vice versa. In these circumstances, all women must seek knowledge on ovarian cancer and apply it for better chances of catching the disease while it is still in its early stages of development.

Those who are also taking hormonal replacement therapy to maintain the aspects of youth and be active are also at greater risk. Often people believe hormone replacement therapy can slow down the effects of aging in women, but it can also increase the risk of developing problematic ovaries.

This is why it is hard for many women to quit smoking since it is good at removing stress. However, there are complications that come from smoking and one of them is cancer of ovaries. On the other hand, women who have had their menopause stage and are obese can also increase their risk.

If you are a patient then the amount of pain you feel will depend on three factors: the type of cancer you have, the stage or extent of the cancer and your individual pain threshold. How well you tolerate pain will determine how much pain you actually feel.

Do you have 2 or more family members that had a history of ovarian cancer? Did you have any multiple exposures to fertility drugs? Or do you have either BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation? I will be sharing with some important information on how some women detect the early symptoms of ovarian cancer and ovarian cyst symptoms.

There is much difficulty in making an early diagnosis due to the fact that signs and symptoms are very often subtle and non specific, and unless you go looking for this disease with specific diagnostic lab and radiology tests you are not likely to find it early on. Some symptoms include abdominal pain and fullness, back pain, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, pelvic pain and urinary symptoms.

Symptoms

Once women cross the age of 45 years, ovarian cancer survival rates decrease even further, going down to 85%. Life expectancy at this point is not very high and can be further complicated if breast cancer develops at the same time. Once women hit their sixties, the life expectancy goes down to some five to six years, after remission.

The next form of ovarian cancer treatment is using chemotherapy. This uses heavy dosage of medicines to shrink the amount of cancerous cells present in the body. After which, surgery can be used to remove the remaining parts of the cancer. However, chemotherapy is known to fully cure the germ cell kind of ovarian cancer, which is quite rare.

The next kind of treatment that is used only in the very advanced stages is known as radiation therapy. As an ovarian cancer treatment procedure, it has till not received much popularity or widespread use. Only stage IV patients have radiation therapy, that too in small dosages so as not to cause functioning problems in the body.

The loss of appetite, unexplained weight gain or loss, swelling in the abdomen and general pain in the stomach region are the first indicators of a disorder. After which, any kind of persistent bowel related problems, such as frequent urination, diarrhoea, excessive gas and constipation are further symptoms.

Much of the problem in providing adequate and fast treatment comes from the fact that it displays no tell-tale ovarian cancer symptoms to go by. Often enough, screening for cancer can fail at the first attempt and require multiple tests to provide a true positive result. Other than that, the early stages are very similar to other gynaecological problems that women display and are usually treated for the same.

Treatments

Treatment usually includes (after thorough diagnostic testing and staging) excision of the mass/tumor by surgery. Depending on the stage of the disease other organs may also be removed, for example the appendix is generally removed due to its potential target for metastasis. Following removal of the tumor, chemotherapy is typically initiated with a combination of platinum and taxane-based agents.

Screening for ovarian cancer should include annual physical examination and directed exams by markers and imaging only when warranted. Routine screening with CA 125 yield too many false positives and misses too many tumors early on to be a good general screening test. BRCA analysis should be reserved for descendents of those with mutated BRCA1 & BRCA2 genes, it is not recommended as a general screening tool.

Ovarian cancer is the 5th most common cancer in women after lung, breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancers. It accounts for only three percent of cancer in women, and fortunately there has been a decline in incidence of this type of cancer by about 1% over the last twenty years.

While this article focuses on ovarian cancer, it is important to realize that with any health problem the diagnosis is more important than the treatment. This is because a correct diagnosis can help determine the correct course of treatment. When it comes to ovarian cancer, it is especially important that you get an early diagnosis.