In Monday's issue of the journal Cancer
For the study, researchers looked at claims records of 1,985 elderly women with ovarian cancer, 6,024 elderly women with breast cancer, and 10,941 Medicare-enrolled women of the same age without cancer.
They compared diagnosis codes, which doctors write down when making insurance or Medicare claims.
They found about 40-percent of the women had physician claims citing one or more visits for abdominal or pelvic symptoms before the cancer was diagnosed.
While abdominal pain and swelling are not always symptoms of ovarian cancer, the disease proves deadly because it is very often diagnosed after it has spread.
The American Cancer Society says this year alone more than 22,000 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and over 16,000 will die of it.
