The ovaries are two, one-and-a-half inch long organs roughly the size and shape of an almond located in a woman's pelvis on either side of the uterus. They are responsible for producing egg cells every month during a woman's reproductive cycle. The ovaries also are the main source of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone. After menopause, the ovaries shrink in size as they stop producing eggs and drastically decrease hormone production.
Ovarian cancer occurs when cells of the ovaries begin to divide and grow uncontrollably. Overall, one out of every 55 women (roughly 1.8 percent) will develop ovarian cancer in her lifetime. Approximately 23,100 women in the United States will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2000, and 14,000 will die of the disease. Cancer of the ovaries accounts for 4 percent of all cancers in women.
Unfortunately, ovarian cancer does not have a high early detection rate because the early symptoms are vague and confused with other conditions. This translates into a major difference in survival: the chance of cure (defined as being alive five years after being diagnosed) is 85 to 90 percent for women whose cancer is diagnosed before it has spread to other organs. Women whose cancer has already spread beyond the ovaries have only a 20 to 25 percent chance of living five years after being diagnosed. About 75 percent of all ovarian cancers fall into the latter category.
The great majority of cancers of the ovaries arise from the cells that make up the ovarian lining, called the epithelium. Epithelial ovarian cancers account for 85 to 90 percent of all cancer of the ovaries, and occur in one in every 70 women. The second most common type of ovarian cancer arises from the germ cells, which go on to form a woman's eggs. Germ-cell ovarian cancers comprise 15 to 20 percent of all cancers of the ovaries, and are most common in the first two decades of life. Lastly, stromal tumors arise from the connective tissue cells that hold the ovaries together. These account for approximately 5 percent of all ovarian cancers, and more than half occur in women older than age 50.
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