According to new guidelines by the NHS, GPs should provide more blood tests to try and detect ovarian cancer at an earlier stage.
Around 7,000 women each year within the UK are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, however only a third of people survive more than five years. The key symptoms of ovarian cancer include bloating, lower abdominal pain, feeling full after eating only a small amount and needing to urinate with increased frequency.
The NHS aims to improve early diagnosis figures, by encouraging the use of blood tests that measure the protein CA125. The blood test detects cancer about half of the time. However, combining the results from blood tests and ultrasound scans and increasing the awareness of the symptoms can all help to improve the survival rate of ovarian cancer.
