Despite government campaigns and changes to monitoring ovarian cancer, still every one or two women out of a thousand will develop the disease at some point in their life. Although the likelihood of developing ovarian cancer is comparatively rare to other forms of cancer, medical negligence means that many women are not diagnosed until it is too late, or are misdiagnosed altogether.
The Medical Defence Union has investigated 209 cases of alleged delays in diagnosing ovarian cancer in the last nine years. Of these 209 cases, 84% of women were misdiagnosed with either irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulitis or anaemia. 71 of these claims were made against doctors, with eight settled resulting in payouts of between 9,000 and 550,000 each.
Figures show that in the United Kingdom, 6,500 women develop ovarian cancer each year. Of these, 4,000 die from the disease. Early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is imperative to helping secure survival. However, Dr Rachel Sutcliffe, a medico-legal advisor from the MDU, admits that a missed diagnosis is not always down to medical negligence, but due to other factors including patients not informing their GP of their family's cancer history and the fact that ovarian cancer is incredibly hard to detect.
This year, the government have provided the charity Ovarian Cancer Action with 450 million to help fund an awareness campaign designed to reduce the number of deaths from the disease. The key to this campaign is to inform women of the differences between getting older and ovarian cancer as many differences can become blurred. GPs, too, are being given extra information and training as a part of this campaign.
Women are being encouraged to keep a diary of their symptoms and to see their GP as soon as possible if they are suffering from any of the following; persistent pelvic and stomach pain, persistent bloating (continuous, not on and off), increased abdominal size, difficulty eating and feeling fuller quicker.
The Medical Defence Union has investigated 209 cases of alleged delays in diagnosing ovarian cancer in the last nine years. Of these 209 cases, 84% of women were misdiagnosed with either irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulitis or anaemia. 71 of these claims were made against doctors, with eight settled resulting in payouts of between 9,000 and 550,000 each.
Figures show that in the United Kingdom, 6,500 women develop ovarian cancer each year. Of these, 4,000 die from the disease. Early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is imperative to helping secure survival. However, Dr Rachel Sutcliffe, a medico-legal advisor from the MDU, admits that a missed diagnosis is not always down to medical negligence, but due to other factors including patients not informing their GP of their family's cancer history and the fact that ovarian cancer is incredibly hard to detect.
This year, the government have provided the charity Ovarian Cancer Action with 450 million to help fund an awareness campaign designed to reduce the number of deaths from the disease. The key to this campaign is to inform women of the differences between getting older and ovarian cancer as many differences can become blurred. GPs, too, are being given extra information and training as a part of this campaign.
Women are being encouraged to keep a diary of their symptoms and to see their GP as soon as possible if they are suffering from any of the following; persistent pelvic and stomach pain, persistent bloating (continuous, not on and off), increased abdominal size, difficulty eating and feeling fuller quicker.
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