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Ovarian Cancer |
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Tanara Banning |
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Ovarian Cancer is cancer that begins in the ovaries, important organs of the female reproductive system, which produce sex steroid hormones that begin puberty, sexual development, and the menstrual cycle. The ovaries are also the source of eggs; the hormones made by the ovaries cause these eggs to become mature, released, and ready for fertilization and the growth of a fetus. |
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Cancer develops in the ovaries when its cells not only divide and reproduce more than normal forming cancerous tumors, but they are also capable of spreading to other parts of the body. For most women the overall risk of getting ovarian cancer is small; 1 in 55, still it is the #1 cancer deaths from gynecologic malignancy. Therefore, education, awareness and ways of prevention is important, a few things that are believed to decrease the risks of getting ovarian cancer are using certain methods of birth control, taking progesterone supplements in high doses for short intervals and low doses in long intervals, or removing the ovaries, even if they are healthy, for women that are at very high risk for ovarian cancer. Factors that increase the risk of ovarian cancer are family or personal history of cancer, being of N. European decent, infertility, late menopause, age over 55, or have taken hormone therapy for 10 or more years. This disease is hard to detect in its early stages, only about 20% are found before tumor growth has spread to other tissues and organs, most of the time the disease has developed before it is diagnosed, due to the fact of there being no symptoms or they are just few or mild, often being ignored until it has advanced in its staging. Staging is determined at the time of surgical evaluation, stage I being the earliest and stage IV being the most advanced. It is these stages that help plan treatments. |
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