Experts warn that women are dying from ovarian cancer that should not be because GPs are not properly trained to notice warning signs when they perform annual inspections.
According to a new survey that came out from the Target Ovarian Cancer Study, it took 37% a few visits to the GP before they were properly diagnosed with ovarian cancer and of those 65% were not immediately referred for further testing.
The study also found that many GPs often misdiagnosed ovarian cancer labeling it Irritable Bowel Syndrome or other general illness instead of correctly identifying the disease as cancer.
Furthermore, the study reported that 44% of women did not receive a correct diagnosis until six months later after their GP visit when evidence was found and 37% had to visit their GP three to five times before they received an official referral to go see a cancer specialist.
Senior research fellow at Bristol University, Dr. Willie, Hamilton, said that the study is disturbing given that the time delay not only causes the women to suffer from a high level of anxiety, but the time delay could be causing the premature death of women in which the disease spreads past the curable stage in the lapse of treatment time.
