Epidemiology, staging, and clinical characteristics

EPIDEMIOLOGY Overview Epithelial ovarian cancer is responsible for the majority of gynecologic cancer deaths, although it is only the second most common gynecologic neoplasm, accounting for approximately one-quarter of gynecologic cancer diagnoses (1,2). A woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is about 1 in 70. In the year 2009, the American Cancer Society estimated that 21,550 women would be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the United States and that 14,600 would die of their disease (3). Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the United States, following cancer of the lung, breast, colon, and pancreas (3). Most women are diagnosed in advanced stages and eventually die of progressive, chemotherapy-resistant disease. Overall five-year survival is approximately 46% (3).