WHAT IS OVARIAN CANCER?
In the western countries ,ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from among female sex organ cancer and is the fouth cancer related to the death among women with an estimated worldwide prevalence of 192,000 per year.Due to absence of early symptoms and to the inadequacy of available screening methods in result in over 70% of the women being diagonased after the disease has spread beyond the ovary so that the outcome is poor and 5 year survival is no better than 37 % this means that ovarian cancer are often diagnosed at on advanced stage resulting in alow survival rate. Ovaries are reproductive glands(agoup of cell that secrete aspecific substance) found only in women. The ovaries produce eggs for reproduction. The eggs travel through the fallopian tubes into the uterus where the fertilized egg implants and develops into a fetus. The ovaries are also the main source of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. One ovary is located on each side of the uterus in the pelvis. Ovarial cancer is thought to most commonly form in the outer lining of the ovary resulting in epithial ovarian cancer and less commonly in the egg cells. However,recent evidence points towards the fallopian tube as precursor for ovarian cancers.Ovarian cancer has been called the silent killer because it frequently causes non-specific symptoms which contribute to diagnostic delay.Most women with ovarian cancer report one or more symptoms.In most cases,the cause of ovarian cancer remains unknown.There are several type of ovarian cancer, like epithial ovarian cancer which affects the surface layers of the ovary ,germ cells ovarian cancer which originates in the cells that make the eggs,stromal ovarian cancer which develops within cells that hold the ovaries.Epithelial ovarian cancer is by far the most common type of of ovarian cancer.Many type of tumors can start growing in the ovaries. Most of these are non- cancerous and never spread beyond the ovaries.Non-cancerous tumors can be treated successfully by removing either the ovary or the part of the ovary and the second type are cancerous and spread to other part of the body.Their treatment is more complex and is discussed later under treatment topics.In general ovarian tumor are named according to the kind of cells the tomur started from and whether the tomur is non-cancerous or cancerous.There are three main types of ovarian tumors.
Epithilial tumors (cancer cell)start from the cells that cover the outer surface of the ovary. Most ovarian tumors are epithelial cell tumors.Germ cell tumors (cancer cell)start from the cells that produce the eggs and stromal cell tumor (cancer cell)start from connective tissue cells that hold the ovary together and produce the female hormones estrogen and progesterone.
