What are the incidence and mortality for ovarian cancer?
Ovarian cancer accounts for approximately 4 percent of all women’s cancers and is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death among women in the United States. In 2005, an estimated 22,000 women were diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and more than 16,000 women died from the disease. The incidence rate for ovarian cancer has been slowly declining since the early 1990s. Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality, or death rate, of all cancers of the female reproductive system, which reflects, in part, a lack of clearly recognizable early symptoms and proven ovarian cancer screening tests. Thus, ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, after the cancer has spread beyond the ovary. White women have higher incidence and mortality rates than other racial and ethnic groups for this disease. It is estimated that approximately $2.2 billion is spent in the United States each year on treatment of ovarian cancer. 3. What is the standard treatment for ovarian cancer? The recommended
