"The real problem with ovarian cancer is screening for it because the incidence is so low," says David Mutch, MD, chief of gynecologic oncology at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

"It''s not like breast cancer where it shows up in one in eight women, with ovarian cancer it''s more like one in a hundred."

With awareness of the disease so important, the Siteman Cancer Center helps the ACS raise awareness of the disease during Ovarian Cancer Awareness month in September.

Education about ovarian cancer is essential, as almost 70 percent of women with the common epithelial ovarian cancer are not diagnosed until the disease is advanced in stage.

That''s why when word of a new test to detect ovarian cancer makes headlines, it grabs people''s attention. "The reason that screening tests don''t work is that the prevalence of the disease is so low that tests must be very sensitive and specific to reliably detect the disease," says Dr. Mutch.

Many news reports hailed CA-125 as the holy grail of ovarian cancer detection – a simple blood test that could detect ovarian cancer. However, Dr. Mutch says that while CA-125 is a marker for ovarian cancer it is not very sensitive or specific, and the test can do psychologically do more harm than good as it turns up more false positives than anyone would like.

Dr. Mutch says a new "proteomic test" has strong potential. In a recent study, protein signatures were generated by comparing blood serum samples from 50 women with ovarian cancer and 50 women without ovarian cancer. The patterns were then used to classify another 116 samples. Of those, all 50 cases of cancer --including 32 in stage I -- were correctly diagnosed. Dr. Mutch feels this "proteomic test" needs to be researched further in the general population before it can be deemed a standard test.

"While we have made progress with this disease in that median survival is increasing rapidly, we still aren''t able to detect it early," says Dr, Mutch. "At this point, what''s more important is for women to get yearly examinations from their OB/GYN and they need to be aware of their symptoms."

He says the symptoms of ovarian cancer are very non-specific, for example bloating, abdominal pain or feeling full early after eating. "These symptoms are common when you have the flu or other problems, but the thing to remember is that if these symptoms persist or get worse they need to seek the care of their physician," says Dr. Mutch.

For more information about ovarian cancer awareness or for a cancer awareness kit, call the Siteman Cancer Center at 800-600-3606.