A survey has found most women don't know the symptoms or risk factors of ovarian cancer, which kills eight hundred women a year.
Ovarian Cancer Australia has found less than one per cent of women know they're at risk if there's a family history of ovarian cancer on their father's side.
And only 42 per cent know a history on their mother's side puts them at increased risk.
The awareness group's chairwoman Paula Benson says there's no test to detect the disease, so it's vital that women know the risk factors and symptoms.
She says the most common risk factors are age and a family history of ovarian cancer.
Other risk factors are having no full-term pregnancies, never having taken oral contraceptives, smoking cigarettes, eating a high fat diet or being overweight or obese.
The most common symptoms are abdominal or pelvic pain, increased abdominal size, persistent bloating, a need to urinate often or urgently, and difficulty eating.
