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In an alarming study presented at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology meeting in Los Angeles, CA, researchers stated that patients suffering from ovarian cancer often do not receive the right kind of medical care. The lead author, Dr. Robert E. Bristow found that medical facilities and doctors often do not have the level of expertise in handling this disease. If patients were to receive care from experts in ovarian cancer and cancer surgeries or experienced surgeons, their life expectancy could be extended depending on the progression of the cancer.

Dr. Bristow, the director of gynecologic oncology at the University of California Irvine, reported that roughly a third of the cases of ovarian cancer a year receive the best quality treatments. The other two-thirds of this group rely on doctors that do not have the ability to provide the best options or treatments, thus, shortening the patients' survival rates. He looked at the medical records of 13,321 patients diagnosed with the most common type of the cancer known as epithelial from 1999-2006 in California. He found that 37 percent of them received care that fit the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's guidelines. The network is composed of experts from 21 major cancer centers that research and recommend treatments. The researchers found that 35 percent of women who received the recommended treatment plan survived at least five years post diagnoses where as that percentage dropped to 25 for women who did not receive the best care. However, the study found that surgeons who have had experience with 10 or more ovarian cancer patients a year or hospitals who attend to over 20 ovarian patients a year were more likely to follow the recommended treatment procedures.

Ovarian cancer starts in the ovaries and spreads outward into the abdomen. A doctor should ideally take an aggressive approach and use chemotherapy with extensive surgery. Often times, women go to their gynecologists, seeking treatment for their cancers when they should really be going to gynecologic oncologists, who are trained to perform this type of surgery that might require the removal of the spleen, parts of the intestines, stomach, and other organs in the reproductive system. However, according to the study, most patients are operated on by gynecologists and general surgeons instead.

The researchers believe that this trend might be due to the lack of awareness as people might not be aware of gynecologic oncologists. Furthermore, this cancer often afflicts older women and is usually found in the late stages of the cancer, forcing women to want to seek treatment as soon as possible. In addition, doctors who do not have experience in this field should refer patients, but they often do not and they end up removing only some of the cancer.

Ovarian cancer kills around 15,000 women a year in the United States with roughly 22,000 new cases per year. There are about 200,000 new cases worldwide per year.