Ovary cancer signs 'confusion'

There is "widespread confusion" among doctors and women about ovarian cancer, a charity has said.

Target Ovarian Cancer surveyed 400 GPs and found 80% wrongly thought women with early stage disease had no signs.

And of 1,000 women polled, only 4% said they could "confidently identify" symptoms of the disease.

A spokesman for the Royal College of GPs said it was "extraordinarily difficult" to diagnose ovarian cancer at an early stage.

Symptoms include persistent pelvic or abdominal pain, increased abdominal size and persistent bloating and difficulty eating or feeling full quickly.

Around 6,800 women are diagnosed with the cancer each year.

Only 30% are alive five years after diagnosis, a statistic the charity says has not improved in 30 years.

It says breast cancer survival has increased from 50% to 80% in the same period.

But it said that if women were diagnosed with ovarian cancer when it was at an early stage, 90% could survive.

Currently, three-quarters of women are diagnosed when the cancer has already spread.

On average, it takes a year from the first symptoms appearing until a woman is diagnosed.