Friday, September 7, 2012

OC Awareness Month #7 - Types of Ovarian Cancer

What is ovarian cancer ? Ovarian Cancer forms in the tissue of the ovaries the female reproductive glands. We are still not sure how or why ovarian cancer forms.  (Note:Recent research proposed that ovarian cancer forms in the fallopian tubes. ) But not every ovarian cancer is the same as every other ovarian cancer.  The most common form is Epithelial, then Germ cell and then Sex Cord Stromal. Each of these has subtypes.


Epithelial Ovarian Cancer ( Forms in the tissue covering the ovary)
  • serous
  • mucinous
  • clear cell
  • undifferentiated
  • mixed epithelial
  • endometrioid

Germ Cell Ovarian Cancer ( forms in the egg cells of the ovary)
  • teratoma
  • dysgerminoma
  • yolk sac tumor
  • embryomal
  • choriocarcinoma

Sex Cord Stromal(forms in the sex cord/ ovarian follicles)
  • granulosa cell
  • Sertoli-Leydig

Source:John Hopkins Pathology (http://ovariancancer.jhmi.edu/home.cfm). The site offers excellent description of each of these different types and subtypes.


It is important that if you are diagnosed with ovarian cancer you know the type . The type of cancer you have may influence the treatment you have.

More on treatment tomorrow.


Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

1 comment:

Catherine said...

Much like I'd never considered there were different types of breast cancer (until I knew better), I've not considered these types of ovarian cancer. But then more and more the discussion is turning to personalized medicine, which means targeting a person's specific cancer - regardless of its classification. It makes me hopeful to think one day they'll be able to understand cancer inside and out, and blast it away accordingly.