Ovarian cancer is a cancer that begins in the ovaries and is usually diagnosed in a later stage due to minimal symptoms or symptoms that seemed to be caused from something not as serious. Later stage diagnosis are also due to a lack of knowledge from the patient and sometimes the physician.
Ovaries are reproductive glands found only in the female body. 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 on each side of the uterus in the pelvis and both ovaries are made up of three main kind of cells and each type of cell can develop into a different type of tumor. Most ovarian tumors are cell tumors. Epithelial tumors, which is the most common, start from the cells that cover the outer surface of the ovary. Germ cell tumors start from the cells that produce the eggs and stromal tumors start from structural tissue cells that hold the ovary together and produce the female hormones estrogen and progesterone (Banerjee, Saraswat., 2014, p.2).
Ovarian cancer is the second most common gynecologic cancer and the most frequent cause of gynecologic cancer-related deaths in the USA with over 50 percent presenting as serious epithelial ovarian cancer (Szabova, L., Bupp, S., Kamal, M., Householder, D. B., Hernandez, L., Schlomer, J. J., & Difilippantonio, S., 2014, p.3). Due to the lack of information and knowledge about ovarian cancer it is usually diagnosed in the late stages when it has already spread beyond the ovaries where the 5-year survival rate is less than 30% (p.3).
Once diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the stage of a tumor can be determined during surgery, when the doctor can tell if the cancer has spread outside of the ovaries. There are four stages of ovarian cancer where Stage I is considered early disease to Stage IV, which is considered advanced...
