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Facts About Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer occurs in one out of 57 women - regardless of age. Over half will die within five years.
23,100 new cases were diagnosed in the year 2000, and 14,500 died from the disease. The annual number of cases has increased 10% over the past 25 years.
Over 75% of cases will be diagnosed in the late stages, resulting in a five year survival of less then 30%.
If diagnosed in its early stage, the chance of survival is 90%.
It accounts for 18 percent of all gynecological cancers and occurs most frequently in women over the age of 50.
Ovarian cancer is the 4th leading killer among American women, and is the deadliest of all gynecologic cancers.
Unlike breast and cervical cancer, there's no reliable screening method for detecting ovarian cancer, nor any real test at the present designed to catch it before it spreads. (A PAP smear does not test for ovarian cancer.)
The risk for ovarian cancer is greater for women who have never had children, who had their first child at a later time in life or who have a personal history of breast cancer, colorectal cancer or endometrial cancer.
You can get a form of ovarian cancer even if you do not have ovaries.
Ovarian tumors may grow to considerable size without producing any symptoms and are first detected upon examination of the pelvic organs.
Women who survive breast cancer - especially those who were diagnosed before age 50 - may face a greater risk
of getting ovarian cancer, a team of UC Irvine researchers has found.
A pelvic examination should be performed every one to three years for women aged 18 to 39 and every year for women over the age of 40.
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