CHICAGO -- A new study says a cluster of three common symptoms in women should raise suspicions of ovarian cancer if they are persistent, severe and began recently.

The three symptoms -- a swollen abdomen, a bloated feeling and urgent urination -- are among many that have been associated with ovarian cancer before. But researchers said that because they also affect most healthy women at some point in their lives, they are often not seen as a tip-off to cancer.

Ovarian cancer is often referred to as a "silent killer" because symptoms are not thought to develop until advanced stages when chance of cure is poor, according to researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

The study of nearly 2,000 women, which is published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that all three symptoms were found in 43 percent of women later diagnosed with ovarian cancer, but in just 8 percent of women without the disease.

Every year, about 23,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 14,000 women die of the disease.

In an editorial accompanying the article, researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center wrote that one reason for the relatively high case-fatality rate is failure to identify early stage disease.

Full Study