Ovarian cancer can be deadly because it’s so stealthy.

The warning signs are vague. There’s no screening test for women without symptoms, like a mammogram for breast cancer. And it has room to grow in the pliable abdomen before it pushes on anything that would cause problems.

So ovarian cancer tends to be diagnosed at a later stage because it can be explained away by the patient — or even their primary care physician — as something else that's benign, says Dr. Jamie Bakkum-Gamez, a gynecologic oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

It can also grow from microscopic to widespread in a matter of months, she notes. All these factors make her vigilant for any warning signs in her own body.

“Every single day, I care for people with ovarian cancer,” Bakkum-Gamez tells TODAY.c

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