Doctors know the prognosis is not encouraging when a woman comes down with ovarian cancer. According to Dr. Robert F. Ozols, chairman of medical oncology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadephia, treatment of ovarian cancer is showing signs of improvement, but the statistics testify to the fact that there's still a long way to go.

"There are no early warning signs, and there are no screening tests available," Ozols said, so right now there's little chance of catching ovarian tumors early. Most women first become aware of a problem when they "complain of a bloated feeling and abdominal discomfort, and they present [show up at the doctor's office! with widespread disease . . . The insidious aspect is that the tumor cells pop out of the ovary and grow all over the place."

Also, Ozols said, ovarian cancer "is usually a disease of older women, those beyond age fifty." As a result, as the United States population ages, the number of ovarian cancer cases can be expected to increase.