Epidemiology of Epithelial Ovarian Carcinoma

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the fi fth to sixth most common cancer in women, causing more annual deaths than any other gynecological malignancies in women worldwide. In the majority of cases, a good prognosis cannot be made at the diagnosis because clinical presentation of the disease occurs at an advanced stage. In the United States, approximately one-half of ovarian cancer- affl icted women die of this disease. Several environmental factors can interfere on the risk of ovarian cancer, and the different interferences of some risk factors on the histologic type of tumor lead to hypothesize a different mechanism of carcinogenesis. In this view, the epithelial ovarian cancer seems to recognize a proper oncogenetic mechanism in which genetic factors, reproductive factors, and some lifestyle factors play an important role.