The ovarian cancer detection in early stages is difficult as there are no specific initial symptoms of the disease and it gets diagnosed only in its advance stages. However, if few symptoms or warning signs are not ignored and health checkups are done at regular intervals there is an increased probability of effective treatment and survival rate.

The post here provides the brief information about diagnosis of ovarian cancer, its prognosis, tests and treatments.

Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis

Early diagnosis is the key to improved ovarian cancer prognosis. The diagnosis techniques of ovarian cancer are

• Physical exam

  It's the method of physically examining the body to look for the signs of the ovarian cancer. These signs could be an enlarged ovary and indications of fluid in the abdomen.

• Imaging tests

  Several tests are done to take the images of the tumor/cancer inside the ovary for further examination. These tests include computed tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and ultrasound studies. All these tests take images which helps in confirming the presence of any mass in the ovaries.

• Biopsy

  The process of locating and removing a part of the cancerous tissue or tumor inside the ovary by a surgery for further examination is called biopsy.

• Blood test

  CA-125 test is a kind of blood test that helps finding the cancer. Women with high level of CA-125 are found to be at high risk of having ovarian cancer.

Ovarian Cancer Treatments

Once the cancer is diagnosed there are several options for treating the disease:

• Surgery

  Surgery is one of the widely preferred treatment of ovarian cancer. The main goal of the biopsy is to provide precise information of the cancer stage. Studies show that in about 30% of the women who, apparently, are in their early stage (after image test), turn out to have the cancer spread to other organs nearby.

  Surgery is the process of completely removing all the tumors visible in the ovary or its surroundings. Usually an onco-gynecologist performs this surgery.

• Chemotherapy

  Chemotherapy is a process of killing cancerous cells using drugs by destroying their ability to grow and divide. Systematically, the therapy takes place through two routes - by oral intake, known as oral chemotherapy in form of tablets and through injecting when the drugs goes into the veins and mixes in the blood, traveling through the blood stream to the cancer affected part of the body. This process is known as intravenous chemotherapy.

• Radiation Therapy

  The high energy X-rays are repeatedly exposed to the cancerous cells/tumor to completely remove or shrink it.