Early detection helps reduce ovarian cancer risk: Expert

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Career women who do not get married until their early 30s, or women who get married but do not get pregnant, are running a high risk of suffering from ovarian cancer, a health expert says.

Nasdaldy, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Dharmais Cancer Hospital, said on Tuesday that women who had their first period at a very young age or those who experienced late menopause were also at high risk of ovarian cancer.

Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar titled "How to Prevent Ovarian Cancer", Nasdaldy said regular pelvic examinations could reveal the presence of tender nodules with lumpy cells which are often found in the posterior vaginal wall or ovary regions.

"A woman has a 50 percent chance of getting ovarian cancer if at least one of her immediate family members has had breast and/or ovarian cancer," said Nasdaldy, calling on career women to have regular pelvic examinations to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer.

A woman from a family that had no history of cancer still has a 1.5 percent chance (one out of 70 women), of developing ovarian cancer at some point in her life.

Ovarian cancer is the second most common cause of death among gynecological cancers after cervical cancer.

According to Nasdaldy, taking oral contraceptive pills could help reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by up to 50 percent.

The Dharmais Hospital receives some 50 new cases of ovarian cancer every year, most of them involving women over 40.

Indonesian female teenagers and women aged between 25 and 35 had also been found to have early signs of ovarium cancer in the form of cysts in their ovaria.

"Because no effective screening test for ovarian cancer exists, over 80 percent of women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed in the advanced stages of the disease," Nasdaldy said.

"Ovarian cancer cells frequently implant in the uterus, bladder, bowel and omentum. These begin forming new tumor growths before cancer is even suspected." he said.

Nasdaldy said that those in the advanced stages of ovarian cancer often showed symptoms like a sense of pelvic heaviness, vague lower abdominal discomfort, vaginal bleeding, weight gain or loss, abnormal menstrual cycles and increased abdominal girth.

Additional symptoms that were often associated with the disease were an increase in urinary frequency or urgency, and lack of appetite.