I spoke about how there are symptoms of ovarian cancer( gloating, freq urination etc) in my previous post. What happens when you go to your gynecologist or primary care physician with these symptoms? Your doctor may image your pelvis with an ultrasound. If something is abnormal you may have a CT or MRI. You also may have a blood test for a protein in the blood called CA-125. The marker is raised in most serous ovarian cancers ( I'll discuss the types a little later in the post) but it may not be elevated in other types . It can also be elevated if the women is still menstruating which is why the CA-125 is not used as a screening test for ovarian cancer. The Foundation for Women's Cancer has an informative book on CA-125 ( https://foundationforwomenscancer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/FWC_CA-125-Levels-Your-Guide.pdf )
If these test come back abnormal it is important to see a specially trained gynecologic oncologist. Studies show that survival rates for women treated by a gyn onc are higher than those who have treatment.
Staging OC
It is important to know if the cancer has spread from the ovaries to other areas of the pelvis or abdomen. Two organizations the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics and the AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer) have systems for staging called the FIGO and TNM staging systems. Both look at the size of tumors, Lymph node involvement and spread beyond the ovaries.
The stage is determined by the amount of spread and size of tumors.
Below is a diagram of the stages from FWC.
Types of OC
The most common type of ovarian cancer ( 85%) is Epithelial ovarian cancer. The develop on the Fallopian tubes or on the surface cells of the ovaries. These epithelial cancers can be from mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Epithelial ovarian cancer can be high grade or low grade. Knowing the difference provided information to develop the best treatment. There are a number of histological ( structure at the cell level) subtypes of epithelial ovarian carcinomas :
Germ cell cancers make up about 5% of OC diagnosis. Germ cell cancers start in cells that are found in the follicles or eggs in the ovary. Usually adolescents or young women develop this disease.
Sex cord- Stromal Cell Cancers develop in the cells that produce female hormones ( such as estrogen).
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/ovarian-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/staging.html
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8774015/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/6186-ovarian-germ-cell-tumors
https://www.mskcc.org/pediatrics/cancer-care/types/germ-cell-tumors-sex-cord-tumors
