What is ovarian cancer?
Cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissue. Ovarian cancers are a group of diseases that affect a woman’s ovaries and are considered a type of gynecological cancer.
Ovarian cancer is a disease in which, depending on the type and stage of the disease, cancerous cells are found inside, near, or on the outer layer of the ovaries. An ovary is one of two small, almond-shaped organs located on each side of the uterus that store eggs, or germ cells, and produce the female hormones estrogen and progesterone.
Can ovarian cancer spread?
Ovarian cancer can spread to other organs in the pelvis and abdomen or through the bloodstream or lymphatic system to other parts of the body.
There are 3 types of ovarian cancer:
- Epithelial tumors (account for 90 percent of cases and generally occur in post-menopausal women)
- Germ cell carcinomas
- Stromal carcinomas