What is Ovarian Cancer

Female friends must pay attention to their reproductive health, because many diseases often occur in female friends' genitals. Some reproductive diseases are relatively easy to treat, while some reproductive diseases are likely to cause threats to life, such as ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is a very scary disease. We must know what ovarian cancer is.

To understand what ovarian cancer is, in addition to knowing the concept of ovarian cancer, we should also understand the clinical manifestations and causes of ovarian cancer. We need to know how to prevent and treat ovarian cancer.

Ovarian malignancy is one of the common malignant tumors of the female reproductive organs, and its incidence rate ranks third after cervical cancer and uterine body cancer. However, the mortality rate of ovarian epithelial cancer ranks first among all types of gynecological tumors, posing a serious threat to women's lives. Due to the complexity of the embryonic development, tissue anatomy and endocrine function of the ovary and the atypical early symptoms, it is quite difficult to distinguish the tissue type and benign or malignant nature of ovarian tumors before surgery. Epithelial carcinoma is the most common ovarian malignancy, followed by malignant germ cell tumors. During surgery for patients with ovarian epithelial cancer, it is found that only 30% of the tumors are confined to the ovaries, while most have spread to the uterus, bilateral adnexa, greater omentum and pelvic organs, so early diagnosis is a major problem.

The cause of the disease is unclear and may be related to the following aspects: external factors of cancer (including chemical, physical, biological and other carcinogenic factors); internal factors of cancer (including immune function, endocrine, genetic, mental factors, etc.), as well as dietary nutrition disorders and bad living habits. It often occurs in perimenopausal women. Epithelial ovarian cancer is more common in women over 35 years old, while germ cell malignancies are more common in young and adolescent women.

1. Symptoms

(1) Pain: Ovarian malignant tumors may cause a considerable degree of persistent pain and distension due to changes within the tumor, such as bleeding, necrosis, and rapid growth. During examination, local tenderness was found.

(2) Irregular menstruation, occasional irregular uterine bleeding, and postmenopausal bleeding.

(3) In the late stage of emaciation, the patient will suffer from progressive emaciation.

2. Physical signs

(1) Lower abdominal mass: 75% of malignant ovarian tumors grow bilaterally, while only 15% of benign ovarian tumors grow bilaterally.

(2) Ascites Although benign ovarian tumors such as fibroids or papillary cystadenomas may also be complicated by ascites, malignant ovarian tumors are more likely to be complicated by ascites. If malignant tumor cells have penetrated the capsule or have metastasized to the peritoneum, the peritoneal effusion may be bloody.

(3) Patients with prolonged cachexia may experience symptoms such as progressive weight loss, fatigue, and listlessness due to long-term consumption and loss of appetite.

Above we introduced what ovarian cancer is and the causes of ovarian cancer. We know that the causes of ovarian cancer are still not very clear, so it has brought difficulties to our treatment of ovarian cancer. However, we can understand some symptoms of ovarian cancer. Once symptoms of ovarian cancer appear, we must seek medical attention in time.