What is ovarian cancer?

Ovarian malignancy, or ovarian cancer, is one of the three major malignant tumors of the female genitalia. Ovaries are the female internal genitalia, a pair of flat oval gonads with reproductive and endocrine functions. Although the ovaries are small, they have complex tissues and are the site of the largest number of tumor types in all organs of the body. There are many histological types of ovarian tumors, including benign, clinically malignant, and malignant tumors. The etiology of ovarian malignant tumors is unclear and difficult to prevent. Moreover, the ovary is located in the deep pelvis, not easy to be touched or detected. Early ovarian cancer often has no obvious symptoms, and when the patients find it by themselves and then seek for medical treatment, the malignant tumors are often not in the early stage, so at present, the five-year survival rate of ovarian malignant tumors is still relatively low, probably at 25%-30%. Ovarian cancer has become a serious threat to women’s lives. The principle of treatment for ovarian malignant tumor is to take surgery as the mainstay, plus the comprehensive treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Ovarian cancer is easy to recur and should be followed up and monitored for a long time. Women over 30 years old should have routine gynecological physical examination every year, and for high-risk groups, it is better to have an examination once every half a year, together with ultrasonography and relevant tumor markers, in order to exclude ovarian tumors, so as to achieve early detection and early treatment.