There is tremendous effort within the ovarian cancer community to share information about signs and symptoms, which are often confused with other conditions. It is important that individuals and healthcare providers are aware of these symptoms, because knowing them can aid in getting an earlier diagnosis and perhaps make treatment a bit easier. Also, correctly identifying the symptoms of ovarian cancer can help patients receive earlier care from a gynecologic oncologist, which has shown to improve outcomes. However, a recent long-range study has shown that earlier detection of ovarian cancer using currently available methods, does not reduce mortality. This seems counterintuitive, but scientists studied 200,000 women over a period of 20 years to determine the effectiveness of screening using the CA-125 blood test and transvaginal ultrasounds (TVUS). While they did see some stage shifts (more diagnoses of earlier stage disease), they did not see a change in mortality. Doctors and scientists are speculating as to why this is so, and suspect it may be because some ovarian cancers — even within the same subtype — are just more inherently aggressive than others. So, while it is still important to know the symptoms of ovarian cancer, to say that having this knowledge will save lives is untrue. And it can be harmful as it places the blame on the patient who, for any number of reasons, may not have recognized the symptoms when they first began. It also dilutes energy and resources away from critical research, such as better understanding of disease origins and precision treatment.