Ovarian Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawsuits

Cancer is caused by an alteration in the genes that control cell growth, resulting in uncontrolled cell growth. This can originate in the ovaries, a pair of organs central to the function of the female reproductive system.

The ovaries are two grape-sized organs located on either side of the uterus. They have several important functions for the female body and reproduction. They produce the hormones estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Additionally, they produce and release gametes, or eggs. The ovaries play a central role in puberty, fertility, and pregnancy.

When cancer begins in the ovaries, symptoms may not be noticeable at first. As the disease progresses, the patient may experience symptoms such as abdominal or pelvic pain, irregular vaginal discharge or spotting, bloating, loss of appetite, frequent urination, and constipation.

Ovarian cancer can spread to nearby areas, including the fallopian tubes, uterus, and bladder, as well as nearby lymph nodes, and eventually to distant organs, typically the liver or spleen. The disease, particularly when it spreads throughout the body, can be fatal.

About 1.2% of women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer during their lifetime. There are risk factors that increase the odds that a person will develop this type of cancer. For example, it is overwhelmingly diagnosed in older women—half of cases are found in women over 63, and having this cancer when you are young is rare. Other risk factors include:

• Ovulating more throughout your life, i.e. if you never had children, never carried a pregnancy to full term, or had your first child after the age of 35
• Being overweight or obese
• Hormone therapy (estrogen/progesterone) after menopause
• Fertility treatments (IVF)
• Smoking
• Having had breast cancer

Genetic factors can also greatly increase a woman’s chance of having gynecological cancers. You are at a higher risk if someone in your family has had ovarian, breast, or colorectal cancer before. Almost a quarter of all ovarian cancers are attributed to a family cancer syndrome. This is when a gene mutation that causes cancer is passed down from parents to their children.

On the other hand, having had children before and/or using birth control pills reduces your risk.

The following symptoms are characteristic of ovarian cancer:

• Abdominal/pelvic pain
• Indigestion
• Bloating/stomach “lump”
• Vaginal bleeding (between periods)/abnormal discharge
• Trouble eating or feeling full too quickly
• Urinary symptoms (urinating often or always feeling like you have to go)

Though these symptoms may occur in healthy people or for reasons other than a malignant tumor, always go to the doctor if you have vaginal bleeding, a strange lump or bloating, or if any of these symptoms occur more than a few times a month.

Unlike some other types of cancer, there is no way to efficaciously screen for ovarian cancer. A pap smear cannot detect ovarian cancer, just cervical cancer. In fact, though blood testing may reveal ovarian cancer, screening for this type of cancer in asymptomatic women is not recommended by many health organizations because a high number of false positives can lead to serious surgeries (think hysterectomies) that prove unnecessary. This means that it is usually only diagnosed once symptoms exist, which may or may not be early on in the disease.

If you have the symptoms listed above or if your gynecologist notices something abnormal with the ovaries during a pelvic exam, they should perform diagnostic tests and ask about your health and family history. The specialist that treats cancers in the female reproductive system is called a gynecologic oncologist. These tests can determine a person’s risk, the presence of a tumor and cancer cells, the spread of the cancer, and other important information.

• General tests: Family history and medical records, genetic testing, abdominal and pelvic exam
• Blood tests: Blood count, blood chemistry, serum protein (the CA-125 protein is found on ovarian cancer cells)
• Imaging tests: Transvaginal or transabdominal ultrasound and/or CT scans, MRIs and x-rays of the chest
• Tissue tests: Biopsy

If the test results confirm a cancer diagnosis, doctors need to determine the stage of the cancer, or how far it has progressed. The stages of cancer depend on the level of metastasis (spread). The higher the stage, the worse the prognosis typically is for recovery. In general:

• Stage I: The cancer is just in the ovaries and fallopian tubes
• Stage II: The cancer has spread to other areas in the pelvic region
• Stage III: The cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes
• Stage IV: The cancer has spread to the lungs and/or spleen and other organs/tissues

The treatment options for cancer can, of course, be complex. The treatment plan that cancer patients and their doctors create depends on the stage of the cancer, the patient’s health, and the patient’s personal preferences. Usually, the treatment employs both surgery and chemotherapy to remove the tumor and kill the cancer cells. Often, the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and even the uterus are removed.

The five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer patients compared to a person who isn’t sick is 48.6%. This is middle-of-the-road when it comes to cancers. While some cancers, such as breast cancer, can have survival rates in the 80-90% range, others, such as pancreatic cancer, are far more dire, with only an 8% survival rate.

But this survival rate does not tell the whole story. That is because it is the average rate of different stages of the most common type of ovarian cancer (epithelial). When you look at the survival rates of this type of cancer broken down by stage, you realize that early detection of the disease greatly improves its outcome. The five-year survival rates by stage are as follows:

• Localized (has not spread from ovaries): 92%
• Regional (has spread only to nearby areas): 76%
• Distant (has spread to distant organs, e.g. liver or lungs): 30%

Historically, it has been difficult for medical professionals to catch this cancer in its early stages. This is because there is no screening process for asymptomatic patients, and symptoms do not always show until the disease is in its later stages. Improving the early diagnosis of this cancer is a priority for many researchers. The good news is that for the past few decades, ovarian cancer incidence and death rates have been slowly but steadily decreasing.

It is possible to have ovarian cancer without knowing, until symptoms become obvious. But what happens when you have symptoms and are told that it is not cancer, but are later diagnosed with cancer at a subsequent visit to the doctor? In other words, what happens if you do not get an accurate diagnosis and are misdiagnosed?

Some of the symptoms of ovarian cancer are easy for healthcare providers to shrug off as symptoms of a much less serious problem. Things like bloating and urinary symptoms, for example, may not be taken seriously by all doctors. Symptoms of ovarian cancer are sometimes misdiagnosed as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), indigestion, heartburn, diverticulitis (digestive tract inflammation), a UTI (urinary tract infection), endometriosis (noncancerous tissue growth), or menopause. If something with your diagnosis feels wrong, speak up and request more testing, or seek a second opinion.