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Ovarian Cancer Research

By: mauvine jezzel Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Ovarian cancer is a silent killer and is one of the deadliest threats to women’s health. The Cancer Society says that about 20,180 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in this year. Every woman faces a risk of 1:57 risk of getting ovarian cancer in her lifetime.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are not detectable until the cancer has spread on a large scale and important, which explains why thousands of women die of this dreaded disease every year. Although ovarian cancer is treatable, in most cases, it is detected at a late stage resulting in complications and death to ovarian cancer patients.

To this day there is no sure and effective way to diagnose or detect ovarian cancer in its early state, specialists, research groups and cancer advocacy groups and the government organizations are doing every ovarian cancer research work they can to finally bring light into the gray areas of this nasty disease. {Some organizations provide grants for those willing and interested to conduct an ovarian cancer research.
Grants are provided by some organizations for people who are willing to conduct an ovarian cancer research}
Among the most prominent organizations that promote attention on ovarian cancer is the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance. It was formed in 1997 by seven ovarian cancer advocacy groups who joined forces to strengthen efforts to promote ovarian cancer education.

Ovarian cancer research teams investigation into a number of areas of ovarian cancer including its symptoms, stages, risk factors, prevention, risk reduction, and treatment, with the aim of increasing awareness on this cancer. Knowledge on the said areas can be a woman’s greatest protection against this cancer.

However apart from the fact that there are many information gaps that still need to be filled, ovarian cancer researches are conducted in response to this cancer’s high death rate. In the United States, ovarian cancer is the fifth among the gynecologic cancers that place women at the threshold of death. Over 50% of all women diagnosed with ovarian cancer are about to die within a period of 5 years, researches show. It is with this fact that ovarian cancer research groups are exerting their best effort to uncover hidden truths about ovarian cancer.

Most ovarian cancer researches reveal that women with ovarian cancer show the following symptoms: persistent and baffling gastrointestinal discomfort, nausea, digestive disturbances, bloating or swelling of the abdomen, pain in the abdominal and pelvic area, fatigue, frequent urinating, and abnormal bleeding during the postmenopausal stage.

A recent ovarian cancer research conducted by University of California shows that more than one-third of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer have shown the symptoms at least four months before they have been diagnosed with the cancer; hence, there’s a good chance that ovarian cancer can be diagnosed earlier.

Researchers explained that the reason why the cancer is detected only when it’s already in its advanced stage is that doctors do not perform tests that could possibly diagnose the cancer immediately. Doctors would usually have the patients undergo abdominal imaging and some gastrointestinal procedures, which they say re not that effective in diagnosing this disease.

Other ovarian cancer research works are concerned about improving treatment of ovarian cancer and preventing this disease. Many clinical studies are conducted to carefully analyze a drug’s potential in preventing high-risk women from developing ovarian cancer and in treating those in the early and latter stages of the cancer.