Ovarian cancer has often been called a silent killer. Yet more than 90 percent of women have symptoms long before the disease is identified. However, these symptoms are often vague or misleading. Stomach upset, joint pain, finger swelling are just a few examples.

There isn't a reliable screening test for this kind of cancer yet. CA 27.29 and CA 125 are often increased when a woman has ovarian cancer but not always. CA stands for "cancer antigen." By the time a mass is felt or seen, the cancer has often spread to other organs or outside the abdomen.

In your mother's case, the doctors may not have looked for ovarian cancer right away because she was an older woman. The peak age for ovarian cancer is around 56 years.