A Montreal research team is diagnosing ovarian cancer earlier in an effort to save lives.

Ovarian cancer has been called the silent killer. Doctors believe it progresses without any specific symptoms until it's too late for treatment.

For 80 percent of women with ovarian cancer, diagnosis comes when the cancer is incurable.

Montreal's DOVE Clinic, which stands for "diagnosing ovarian cancer early," is in the process of testing more than 1,400 women. Researchers discovered everything they thought they knew about ovarian cancer was wrong.

"The name -- we got it wrong. We got the origin wrong. The test that we should be using for this is wrong," said Dr. Lucy Gilbert with the University Health Center.

Gilbert's team found that the most serious type of ovarian cancer, responsible for 90 percent of deaths, actually starts in the fallopian tubes and not the ovaries. It helps explain why screening for ovarian cancer has not saved lives.

"How can we for so many years keep looking in the wrong place?" Gilbert said.

In fact, over the past four decades, the cure rate for the disease has barely improved.

But Gilbert's research team found women over 50 with bloating, urinary frequency or discomfort are 10 times more likely to have ovarian cancer than women without symptoms. They want all women over 50, even those with mild discomfort, to call the clinic.

"They saved my life. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them and their support," patient Carol Prigionero said.

To help get the message out, the research team has set up 12 screening clinics across Montreal. The next step is to reproduce their results with a broader and more representative sample of the population in the hope of eventually developing a better diagnostic tool to catch the disease earlier and save more lives.