Epithelial carcinoma of the ovary, fallopian tube, and peritoneum: Clinical features and diagnosis - UpToDate

INTRODUCTION Ovarian carcinoma is the second most common gynecologic malignancy (second to uterine carcinoma) and the most common cause of gynecologic cancer death in the United States and other resource-abundant countries. (See "Epithelial carcinoma of the ovary, fallopian tube, and peritoneum: Incidence and risk factors", section on 'Incidence'.) The majority of ovarian malignancies (95 percent) are derived from epithelial cells (subtypes include high-grade serous, low-grade serous, endometrioid, clear cell, and mucinous); the remainder arise from other ovarian cell types (germ cell tumors, sex cord-stromal tumors (figure 1)) [1]. High-grade serous epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC), fallopian tube, and peritoneal carcinomas are considered a single clinical entity due to their shared clinical behavior and treatment. There is also accumulating evidence of a common pathogenesis for these carcinomas. We will use the term EOC to refer to this group of malignancies in the discussion that

INTRODUCTION Ovarian carcinoma is the second most common gynecologic malignancy (second to uterine carcinoma) and the most common cause of gynecologic cancer death in the United States and other resource-abundant countries. (See "Epithelial carcinoma of the ovary, fallopian tube, and peritoneum: Incidence and risk factors", section on 'Incidence'.) The majority of ovarian malignancies (95 percent) are derived from epithelial cells (subtypes include high-grade serous, low-grade serous, endometrioid, clear cell, and mucinous); the remainder arise from other ovarian cell types (germ cell tumors,