According to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ovarian cancers are the eighth most common cancer in women. There are over thirty types of ovarian cancers, that begin in the ovaries, spread to the fallopian tubes, the uterus and the abdominal cavity. If detected early by Gynecologist in Islamabad, treatment is started immediately according to the type of cancer.
Epithelial Ovarian Cancers
The ovaries are lined on the outer surface by epithelial cells. Uncontrolled growth of these epithelial cells leads to ovarian tumors that can be: benign, borderline and malignant.
According to the American Cancer Society, 85 to 90 percent of ovarian tumors are epithelial in origin.
The benign epithelial tumors are not cancerous and don’t cause severe illness. These tumors don’t have potential to spread. The types of benign epithelial tumors include: serous cystadenomas, Brenner tumors and mucinous cystadenomas.
The borderline epithelial tumors are those that have ambiguous appearance and don’t appear to be cancerous. Of this subtype, the most common are: atypical proliferative mucinous carcinomas and atypical proliferative serous carcinomas. Previously, these tumors were called low malignant potential tumors. These tumors are more common in younger women, and grow slowly.
The malignant epithelial tumors are the most common types of all ovarian cancers. They have serious potential to spread and invade the neighboring organs. The commonest of this subtype is the serous carcinoma, responsible for 52 percent of epithelial tumors. This tumor is either a low-grade tumor or a high-grade tumor, depending on its resemblance with the normal tissue. It responds best to chemotherapy for treatment.
The other subtypes include: clear cell carcinoma, endometrioid carcinoma and mucinous carcinoma.
Germ Cell Tumors
These tumors are less common types of ovarian cancers, and originate from the eggs or the reproductive cells. According to the American Cancer Society, the survival rate of this tumor is high, with about nine out of ten patients responding to treatment. Of all the ovarian cancers, less than 2 percent of tumors turn out to be germ cell tumors.
There are several subtypes of germ cell tumors:
Teratomas: are either mature or immature. This type of tumor contains different types of tissues—including the muscle, bone, hair and teeth. Immature type of teratomas are more malignant than the mature type of teratomas. The former is common in young women, around the age of 18 years.
Dysgerminomas: are rare but the most prevalent of all the germ cell tumors. This tumor grows slowly and has low potential to spread. This is why most patients with dysgerminomas are cured by surgery alone. For malignant cases of this tumor, chemo and radiotherapies are effective in more than 90 percent of cases.
Yolk sac tumor and choriocarcinomas: affect young women and girls. While these tumors grow rapidly, they respond well to chemotherapy. In comparison to ovarian choriocarcinoma, the placental choriocarcinoma during pregnancy is more common.
Stromal Tumors
Of all the ovarian cancers, stromal tumors are responsible for less than 1 percent of cases. These tumors are more common in women in their 50s with a small percent occurring in young girls.
These tumors include cell tumors of: granulosa, Sertoli-leydig and granulosa-theca. Most of the stromal tumors produce hormones like estrogen, and testosterone. Due to estrogen production, symptoms like abnormal vaginal bleeding (like a period) starts in postmenopausal women. In young girls, this abnormal hormone production causes early menarche and breast development.
Alternatively, in case of testosterone production, stromal tumors cause menstruation to stop, with overproduction of facial and body hair. In case stromal tumors start to bleed, the patient presents to the gynecologist, booking with whom can be booked via oladoc.com, with abdominal pain.
