Frequency of Ovarian Tumors According to WHO Histological Classification and Their Association to Age at Diagnosis

Abstract

Ovarian tumors, or ovarian neoplasms, are benign or malignant tumors arising from the ovaries. They may arise from any of the three components of ovary i.e. surface epithelium, germ cells and the stroma of the ovary including sex cords. Tumors in the ovary can also be secondary or metastatic tumors.Objective: To determine the frequency of Ovarian Tumors according to WHO Histological classification and their relation to age at diagnosis in almost one year.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out, that included all the consecutive cases of ovarian neoplasms diagnosed at the Pathology department of a public sector university in Lahore from 1 January 2015 to 13 February 2016.Results: In 95 female patients diagnosed with ovarian tumors, the mean age was found to be 29.58 ±11.493 with a range of 3-65 years. Tumors were most common between the ages of 15 to 30 years. The highest rates of malignancy were in the 0-15 and 45-60 age groups (Figure 1). About 78.9% of the tumors (75/95) were benign, 1.1% (1/95) were borderline and 20% (19/95) were malignant (Figure 3), 72.6% (69/95) were epithelial tumors, 23.2% (22/95) were germ cell and 4.2% (4/95) were sex cord stromal tumors (Figure 4). Among the 95 cases, serous tumors were the most common (49.5%), followed by mucinous (16.8%) and teratomas (15.8%).Conclusion: According to our study, ovarian tumors were common between the age of 15 to 29 years. Benign neoplastic lesions were more common than malignant neoplastic lesions. The frequency of malignant and benign ovarian neoplasms found in our research differed from other studies conducted in Pakistan. There is a significant association of ovarian tumors in age less than 30 year as compared to older age groups (P < 0.001).