5 Things You Should Know About Cancer

Ovarian cancer is one of the most deadly female reproductive cancers and one of the most difficult to detect. If you or a loved one are diagnosed with ovarian cancer it can be a scary experience. Because detection and screening of the disease is limited, it is important to stay informed on the risk factors and other key aspects.

Here are 5 things that every woman should know about this cancer:

1. Ovarian cancer is a relatively rare, but deadly, cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates 22,280 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year, and 15,500 women will die of the disease. (For comparison, the NCI estimates that 226,870 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and 39,510 women will die of that disease this year.)Overall, 1 in 72 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer during their lifetime.

2. Ovarian cancer is more often diagnosed in white women than in women of other races. In the U.S., there are 13.4 cases diagnosed yearly for every 100,000 white women, 11.3 cases per 100,000 Hispanic women, and 9.8 cases per 100,000 black or Asian women.

3. The overall 5-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is 43.7 percent, but the survival rate varies greatly with the stage at which a woman is diagnosed. According to the NCI, 91.5 percent of patients diagnosed before the cancer has spread survive at least five years, whereas only 26.9 percent of those diagnosed after the cancer has spread to other sites in the body survive five years.

4. The single greatest risk factor for developing ovarian cancer is a family history of the disease, according to the NCI. A woman’s risk of the disease triples if she has at least one first-degree relative (a mother, daughter or sister) with ovarian cancer.

5. One reason that risk tends to run in families is that certain families may have mutated versions of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. These mutations raise a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer: 15 to 40 percent of women who have a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer over the course of their lifetime, whereas 1.4 percent of women in the general population will be diagnosed. Women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations typically develop ovarian cancer before age 50.

For more facts about ovarian cancer, click here.