Health
Ovarian cancer may have early warning signs
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Dec. 13, 2004
When patients present with unresolved and recurrent urinary incontinence and abdominal pain, physicians should consider the possibility that these may be the early signs of ovarian cancer, according to a paper published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings in October.
The early stages of the disease have long been believed to be symptomless.
Researchers reviewed the records of more than 100 women diagnosed with the disease in a county in Minnesota between 1985 and 1997. Patients with stage I and II cancers were most likely to have urinary problems and stomach pain while those with later stage tumors were likely to have pain and bloating.
Authors of the paper conceded that these symptoms were common to many conditions but advocated that if no other cause could be found, ovarian cancer should be considered a possibility.
"When a woman goes in to see her doctor with these abdominal, urinary or pelvic symptoms and the tests for the most common causes are negative, the workup needs to continue," said Barbara Yawn, MD, director of research at Olmstead Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., and the study's lead investigator.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/12/13/hlbf1213.htm.
