Abstract
The incidence of ovarian cancer depends on the ethnicity and geographical area. Menopausal status is a well-known risk factor for ovarian cancer and most cases occur after menopause in Caucasians. However, it is less clear how the status of menopause or age at diagnosis is associated with ovarian cancer including its subtypes in Chinese women. Data on 1,283 women with primary malignant or borderline ovarian cancer including age at diagnosis, age at menopause and histology from the largest women's hospital in China was analysed. The median age at diagnosis was 53, 44 and 23 years for epithelial ovarian cancer or sex-cord tumors or germ cell tumors respectively. 58% of epithelial ovarian cancers were diagnosed after menopause, while 58% and 95% of sex-cord tumors and germ cell tumors were diagnosed before menopause. Around 60% of serous, endometrioid and clear-cell carcinoma of epithelial ovarian cancer were diagnosed after menopause, while 23% of mucinous carcinoma was diagnosed after menopause. The median age at diagnosis was 35 years for borderline ovarian cancer and 80% of patients were diagnosed before menopause.Our data demonstrates that the median age at diagnosis of ovarian cancer is younger in our study population than Caucasians reported in the literature regardless of malignant or borderline ovarian cancers, and regardless of subtypes of epithelial ovarian cancer. The prevalence of ovarian cancer is proportionately higher in our study population before menopause than Caucasians. Our results suggest clinicians to be more aware of the symptoms of ovarian cancer in premenopausal Chinese women.
Highlights
Ovarian cancer is a major gynaecological cancer with more than 220,000 newly diagnosed cases every year in developed countries in 2014 and is the 5th leading cause of death in women worldwide [1]
The median age at diagnosis was 35 years for borderline ovarian cancer and 80% of patients were diagnosed before menopause
In our current retrospective study, data were collected from the largest obstetrics & gynaecology hospital in China during 6 years study period with 1,283 cases and we report that the median age at diagnosis of malignant epithelial ovarian cancer was 53 years, which is approximately 10 years younger than Caucasians reported in the literature
Summary
Ovarian cancer is a major gynaecological cancer with more than 220,000 newly diagnosed cases every year in developed countries in 2014 and is the 5th leading cause of death in women worldwide [1]. A number of risk factors which are associated with the changes in levels of sex hormones during women’s lifetime, for developing ovarian cancer have been identified. Ovarian cancers are traditionally classified into three main subtypes including epithelial ovarian carcinoma, sex cord stromal tumors and germ cell tumors based on presumed histogenesis and direction of differentiation. Whether Asian (Chinese) women having better clinical outcomes of ovarian cancer associated with the age at diagnosis or the status of menopause has not been fully investigated. We performed a retrospective analysis of data obtained from the largest university Obstetrics and Gynaecology teaching hospital serving diverse urban and rural areas in China to investigate the association between subtypes of ovarian cancer, age at diagnosis and menopause in our study population
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