Epidemiology of epithelial ovarian cancer, a single institution-based study in India

Background: Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of mortality among all cancers of female genital tract in countries where effective cervical cancer screening program exists. As the world's population ages, remarkable increase in the total number of ovarian cancer cases are expected. This is preliminary epidemiological study to decide priorities in ovarian cancer research. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted with primary epithelial ovarian cancer cases registered in J. K. Cancer Institute, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), from 2007 to 2009. Patients' age at diagnosis, clinical feature, parity of patients, tumor histological type, Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, chemotherapy regimens, and overall survival data were collected and analyzed. Results: One hundred and sixty-three cases of primary ovarian epithelial cancer were analyzed. Patients' mean age at diagnosis was 55.98 ± 9.24 (median = 55). Serous adenocarcinoma (49.69%) was the most prevalent type of histopathology followed by endometroid (19.1%), mucinous (10.42%) and clear cell (4.29%). Combination of taxane and platin was most commonly used first line regimen in newly diagnosed as well as in relapsed patients post 1 year. Survival was not significantly different in various histopathology (log-rank P = 0.7406), but advancing stage demonstrated gradually poor survival (log-rank P < 0.05) when compared with early stage disease. Conclusion: Research efforts should be in the direction to find early diagnostic and effective screening tools as well as better therapeutic approaches for advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.