Ovarian cancer

Overview

In the United States, ovarian cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality from gynecologic malignancies. Malignant ovarian lesions include both primary lesions developing from normal ovarian tissues and secondary lesions arising from malignancies elsewhere in the body. Primary lesions include epithelial ovarian carcinoma.

The existing screening tests have a low predictive value, which adds to the misery. The major early detection techniques include detailed gynecological assessment, transvaginal ultrasound, and laboratory markers such as cancer antigen-125 (CA-125) test, which have demonstrated no substantial benefit in the morbidity or death of this malignancy.

Surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy are the mainstay treatments; however, anti-angiogenic bevacizumab and Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have gained traction in the management of this gynecological cancer in the last decade.