Canadian medical researchers are teaming up to develop ways to detect ovarian cancer earlier, when it is treatable.

"Ovarian cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in women and deadliest of the gynecological cancers," said principal investigator Dr. Lucy Gilbert, a gynecological oncologist at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal.

Women may be symptomatic early on, but the signs are often vague and ignored when the disease is most treatable.

Early symptoms include:

• Abdominal bloating.
• Changes in bowel and bladder patterns.
• Excessive fatigue.
• Abdominal discomfort.

But if caught in its earliest stage, the five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is over 90 per cent.

Gilbert likened the project, called "DOVE: Detecting Ovarian Cancer Earlier," to trying to profile a serial killer by clinically profiling the disease.

The study aims to give doctors a predictive tool so they can tell who needs urgent investigation as precisely as possible, said Dr. Martin Dawes, chair of family medicine at McGill.

Women with cancer will also be compared with controls to look for genetic markers for the disease.

The Canadian Cancer Society estimates 2,300 Canadian women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and 1,600 women will die from the disease.