What are ovaries?

What are ovaries?

Ovaries are female reproductive glands which are responsible for creating eggs (ova) for fertilization.

These two almond shaped body organs (one on the each side of uterus) are also responsible for secretion of reproductive hormones like estrogen and progesterone.

What is ovarian cancer?

When the cells in the ovary begins to multiply exponentially and causes harm to the healthy body tissues, it is termed as ovarian cancer.

How to detect ovarian cancer?

With less than one million cases per year in India, ovarian cancer is a rare disease which is quite hard to detect during the initial stage just on the basis of visual symptoms.

There are no specific body indicators for suffering from this disease, hence proper medical diagnosis is required to establish whether or not a person is having ovarian cancer.

However following are some of the basic traits of a person struggling from ovarian cancer:

• Loss of appetite
• Abnormal weight gain or loss
• Irregular periods
• Soreness in pelvic area
• Bloated abdomen
• Small bladder (frequent urination need)
• Nausea
• Constipation
• Drowsiness
• Backache

Factors that can lead to ovarian cancer origin:

In medical terms when DNA of cells surrounding ovaries begins to change and ends up creating tumor of cancer cells; these tumored cells then interrupts the survival of healthy body cells. However, there are no clear reasons for such mutation in the cells.

After years of analyses and observation here we are discussing various scenarios that can increase your exposure to the ovarian cancer:

• Ageing:
  Usually risk of ovarian cancer is directly proportional to your age. This disease is most commonly diagnosed in elderly females.
• Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC):
  If a person is having a blood relative suffering from breast or ovarian cancer, their chances of attracting the same are comparatively higher than the rest.
• Obesity:
  People who are overweight are more likely to get affected from ovarian cancer.
• Menstruation:
  Women having menstruation at a relatively early age or those having menopause at an unpunctual age are more exposed to this disease.
• Un-pregnancy:
  Women who have never been pregnant or those who never had a full term pregnancy have a greater chance of getting affected by ovarian cancer.
• Gene variation:
  People who are suffering from Lynch syndrome (HNPCC) or those who are having changes in genes like BRCA1, BRCA2, BRIP1, RAD51C and RAD51D, etc have an increased probability of having ovarian cancer.

Methods to prevent ovarian cancer:

• To control menopause signs many women tends to get a hormone replacement therapy, however unless and until it is medically necessary, one should clearly avoid getting a hormone replacement therapy as it increases the chances of ovarian cancer.
• Anovulatory drugs:
  Although consumption of birth control pills have its own risks, but it is seen that women who consume oral contraceptives have reduced chances of ovarian cancer. However, proper consultation must be done with an eligible doctor so as to understand whether or not such pills should be consumed.
• Routine checkups:
  If a person is having a genealogical tree of people suffering from breast or ovarian cancer, they should bring this fact to their doctor’s attention. Through regular checkups and diagnosis these diseases can be detected at an early stage before the case gets too complicated.

Types of ovarian cancer:

Before we get to the types of ovarian cancer lets understand the scope of various types of tumors that can originate into ovaries:

• Benign tumors: These are non cancerous in nature and does not spread anywhere other than the ovaries
• Borderline and Malignant tumors: These are cancerous in nature; they can be fatal and can also spread (metastasize) to other body organs.

Tumors can also be categorised on the basis of how quick they multiply:

• Type 1 grows slowly
• Type 2: grows quickly

Ovaries are usually made up of three kinds of cells which are responsible for conducting various functions of the ovaries.

Tumor can spread into any of these cells, hence a different name and a different treatment procedure is applied for each tumor.

Following are the three major categories of ovarian cancer, however there are numerous sub types of each category of these cancers. All of them can range from benign to borderline to malignant, depending upon the stage at which they are being diagnosed:

1. Epithelial tumor:

   This is the most common type of ovarian cancer. It affects the cells that cover the outer surface of the ovaries.

   Serous, mucinous cystadenomas, Brenner tumors (benign tumors);

   Atypical proliferative serous carcinoma; atypical proliferative mucinous carcinoma (borderline tumors) these are less life endangering and are usually diagnosed in younger women.

   Epithelial ovarian carcinomas such as endometrioid, mucinous, clear cell and serous are highly malignant and fatal.

2. Germ cell tumor:

   Germ cells are responsible for creation of ova. Germ cell ovarian cancer is quite rare as there are less than 2% cases of this type.

   Usually, germ cell cancer is benign however in some cases it can be malignant and life threatening.

   Teratoma: these tumors when benign are called mature teratoma (affects women of reproductive age) and the cancerous ones are called immature teratoma (affects girls, especially younger than 18 years age).

   Dysgerminoma: it usually affects women in their teenage or twenties.

   Choriocarcinoma: Placenta choriocarcinoma occurs during pregnancy, ovarian choriocarcinoma occurs within the ovary at any stage ( generally young women and girls).

3. Stromal tumors:

   With less than 1% cases of this kind, stromal ovarian tumor is usually diagnosed in older women. However around 5% of stromal ovarian cancer is spotted in young girls too. Abdominal pain, growth in facial and body hair, increased estrogen level are frequently noticed in person suffering from stromal ovarian cancer.

   Thecomas, fibromas tumor (benign in nature);

   Granulosa cell tumors, granulosa-theca tumors and Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor (cancerous in nature).

Treatment:

Different treatment procedure can be approached for each kind of ovarian cancer depending upon the facts of the cases (stage of detection, patient’s age, exposure to other diseases, etc).

• Chemotherapy
• Hormone therapy
• Targeted therapy

There are multiple kinds of doctors who can treat ovarian cancer on the basis of what type of cancer it is and on what stage it is identified. Such doctors are:

• Gynecologic oncologist: These doctors are equipped to perform surgery in order to treat ovarian cancer. They can also provide chemotherapy along with other medicines to treat the same.
• Radiation oncologist: The one who uses emission of rays and radiation to treat ovarian cancer.

Also experts like genetic counsellors, nutritionist, psychologists, plays a key role in battling against the ovarian cancer.

After treatment:

Getting done with cancer treatment is a painful and exhausting process. However, one must undertake the following steps in order to live the best life as a cancer survivor:

• Follow-up schedule, routine examination as and when prescribed.
• Physical and mental activities as suggested.
• Dos and don’ts as may be listed by your practitioner.
• Diet and healthy food habits.