Common symptoms of ovarian cancer misclassified as depression: study

Ovarian cancer is the eighth most common cancer in women, and the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition has predicted that by 2050, 8 million women will die from the disease.

However, understanding of the disease is still limited, with the NHS stating there are "systemic injustices" in the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer, as survival rates are impacted by where you live and your age.

And now a new study by researchers at the University of Iowa has found physical symptoms of ovarian cancer are often being misclassified as depression, which is having a knock-on effect on treatment.

These symptoms include loss of appetite, fatigue and cognitive impairment.

The research states "ovarian cancer, often diagnosed at an advanced stage, presents with substantial pre-treatment symptom burden — including fatigue, appetite loss, pain, and sleep disturbance — that can mimic depressive symptoms."

Published in the journal Cancer, the research proved in many cases these symptoms often subside after the first year of diagnosis as treatment continues.

This indicates that the symptoms were caused by the disease, rather than ongoing depression.

More from this section

6 tips for choosing quality vitamins and supplements

Ancient DNA reveals plague wreaked havoc 5,500 years before Black Death

Do you live in one of the states with the shortest lifespan? See where it ranks among all 50, according to data.

After studying 428 ovarian cancer patients, the research concluded the symptoms of ovarian cancer were making patients seem more depressed than they were.

Because of this, misclassifying cancer symptoms as symptoms of depression was common, which can lead to improper treatment and therapies for patients.

Authors concluded the physical symptoms of ovarian cancer "may disproportionately inflate depression scores among patients with ovarian cancer at diagnosis, which may potentially lead to misclassification or overestimation of depression severity."

However, it's important to note that a bidirectional relationship between the two does exist, meaning cancer diagnosis and treatment can cause depression, the study said.

This overlap makes distinguishing and subsequently treating the two effectively difficult.

Researchers are now calling for new diagnosis tools that can better differentiate the two, saying that current depression diagnosis tools were not designed for people with cancer.

“When people are endorsing symptoms for another reason, say cancer, it makes that number go up, even though they’re not actually severely depressed,” Telles, a researcher and doctoral candidate at the University of Iowa, told Medscape. “They’re dealing with the cancer burden.”