What is Ovarian Cancer? 
A malignant growth in the ovary that is likely to spread to other body parts and threaten life. It affects females of all ages, but is most common after age 50. There are many different types of ovarian cancer. Epithelial tumors account for the majority, and they grow more rapidly. Other ovarian cancers are slow growing, or they have spread from other cancer in the body.
Signs and symptoms of Ovarian Cancer
-Often no symptoms occur until late in the disease.
-Discomfort in the lower abdomen, gas, and indigestion.
-Pelvic pain, or swelling in the abdomen with no pain.
-Feeling of being constipated or unable to have a bowel movement.
-Irregular menstrual periods; bleeding from the vagina.
-Pain with intercourse.
-A need to urinate often.
-Excess hair growth.
-Nausea, loss of appetite, not being able to eat, and weight loss. Sometimes a weight gain occurs.
Risk increases with
-Personal history of breast cancer. A family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer, colon, lung, prostate, and uterine cancers.
-Women who carry mutated genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2.
-Advancing age.
-Women who began to menstruate before age 12 and/or start menopause after age 50.
-Women who have used ovulation-stimulating fertility drugs have a slightly increased risk of ovarian cancer.
-Late pregnancies (over age 30).
-Never having had children.
Diagnosis and treatment
Your health care provider will do a physical exam and ask questions about your symptoms. A number of medical tests will be done. The tests help diagnose the cancer, and then aid in determining whether it has spread (staging).
Treatment varies and depends on the location and size of a tumor, any spread of the cancer, health, age, and preferences. Treatment may include chemotherapy (anticancer drugs) and/or radiation therapy, surgery, and biologic therapy.
Chemotherapy uses drugs, and radiation therapy uses radiation to attack the cancer cells. Biologic therapy uses the body's immune system to fight cancer.
The goal of surgery is to remove as many of the cancer cells as possible, so that chemotherapy will be more effective. In young patients who desire pregnancy, it may be possible to remove only the ovary and the tube.
Treatment may involve steps to relieve symptoms and make you comfortable, rather than treating the cancer.
Counseling may help you cope with having cancer.
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