Fayetteville, AR – “Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancer in the United States.” Randall Hightower, MD is a gynecologic oncologist at Washington Regional Gynecologic Oncology Clinic. “It’s ranked 8th is the most common major cancer and the fifth most common cause of death in U.S. women.”

Dr. Hightower says that diagnosing ovarian cancer can be tricky “The symptoms associated with ovarian cancer can be very vague. These vague symptoms can be associated with that medical conditions such as indigestion, new and persistent symptoms of bloating pelvic pain, or abdominal pain, difficulty with eating or early satiety, they feel full too early as well as urinary frequency and urgency.”

Often times women don’t think of ovarian cancer as their problem and look for a different answer. “An example of a patient having difficulty with her clothes and noticing that the clothes size is getting smaller. She went on a diet for that and notice that she didn’t lose weight, she gained weight.”

“I think the biggest thing is the recognition of these subtle signs. I would recommend to the provider of that, with these vague symptoms, even though they’re vague, and we see them in a lot of different other conditions, they would need to investigate that, with an examination, with other means of testing such as ultrasound, may be a CT, MRI, or a pet scan. Only when we investigate these early symptoms can be catch ovarian cancer at an earlier stage and we catch them at an earlier stage with proper treatment with surgery and chemotherapy than the survival Improvement. We know that.”

For more information contact the Washington Regional Gynecologic Oncology Clinic or visit with your primary care physician.