OVER 40 per cent of women with ovarian cancer are only diagnosed after a trip to A&E, a study has suggested.
A bloated and painful stomach is one of the most common symptoms of the cancer, but such a vague symptom means the disease is often only diagnosed at a later stage.
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Over 40 per cent of women with ovarian cancer are only diagnosed after a trip to A&E, a study has observed Credit: Getty
Following an emergency hospital admission, women are a third less likely to have an early stage of the disease, research suggests Credit: Getty
Now, researchers have observed that two in five women in the UK with ovarian cancer are only diagnosed after an “emergency hospital admission”.
There, they are three times less likely to have an early stage of the disease – meaning it is less curable – according to researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Published in the BMJ Oncology journal, the research also indicated that rates of diagnosis after an A&E admission are even higher among women who are “young, old, frail or who live in areas of deprivation”.
Ovarian cancer is the eighth most common female cancer worldwide, taking the lives of more than 200,000 women every year.
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The disease, however, can be difficult to diagnose as it shares symptoms with other, less serious, illnesses.
Symptoms include a swollen tummy or feeling bloated, no appetite or feeling full after eating quickly, pelvic pain and an urgent need to pee or urinating more often.
Ovarian cancer is the eighth most common female cancer in the world Credit: Getty
Survival statistics for the cancer depend on which stage it has been diagnosed at.
At stage 1, 95 per cent of women survive the cancer for five years or more after they are diagnosed, according to Cancer Research UK.
But by the time it gets to stage 4, only around 15 per cent of women survive for five years or more after diagnosis.
In a bid to improve earlier diagnosis of ovarian cancer, researchers drew on national cancer registry data for the 28,204 adult women who have been diagnosed with the disease in England between January 2017 and December 2021.
These were then linked to hospital admission records , showing that just over 40 per cent – 11,377 women – were diagnosed within 28 days of an emergency hospital admission.
Researchers also observed that certain factors – frailty, youth, old age and economic deprivation – were associated with the highest risk of diagnosis.
Among the 3,372 women who were very frail, more than two thirds (69%) were diagnosed after an emergency admission.
Diagnosis after an emergency admission was also 36 per cent more likely in 18 to 29 year olds and 25 per cent more likely in older women – aged over 80 – than it was among women in their sixties, the research indicated.
Women from the most deprived neighbourhoods were also 11 per cent more likely to be diagnosed after an emergency admission than those from the least deprived, even after accounting for influential factors, such as age and frailty.
The analysis also showed that disease diagnosis following an A&E admission was more likely to be advanced.
Among the 8,438 women for whom information on stage was available, just 14 per cent had early stage (1 or 2) cancers compared with over 39 per cent of the 13,865 women who weren’t diagnosed after an emergency admission.
Women diagnosed after an emergency admission were also three times less likely to have slow growing tumours than those who weren’t admitted as an emergency.
One of the most common symptoms of ovarian cancer is feeling bloated or having a swollen tummy Credit: Getty
It must be noted that this was an observational study and researchers acknowledged various limitations to their findings.
Nevertheless, they highlight that this isn’t just a problem for England.
They said: “The issue of ovarian cancer diagnosis following an emergency admission is not confined to England but also affects countries such as the USA, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Canada and New Zealand, where the rates range from about 20% to 50%.
“Concerted action, where possible with support from international collaborations, is needed to improve referral and diagnostic pathways, with a focus on increasing patient awareness, improving early recognition of alarm symptoms, handling the prioritisation of waiting lists, and developing efficient diagnostic pathways that can provide a timely service to the many women with non-specific symptoms”.
It’s important to get any symptoms of ovarian cancer checked as soon as possible, the NHS says.
