Ovarian Cancer Statistics
Ovarian cancer primary develops in women over the age of 45 and is the seventh most common cancer in women in the world, with over 200,000 new cases diagnosed every year1. In the US more than 22,000 women are diagnosed each year and about 14,000 women die of the disease. The highest incidence of ovarian cancer is in Europe and North America with the lowest recorded incidence in Africa and Asia1.
While many cancers have seen major improvements in mortality rates in past twenty years, sadly this is not true of ovarian cancer. It remains the deadliest of all gynecological cancers. The ten year relative survival rate for patients is 34%. The five year survival rate varies dramatically depending on the stage of diagnosis. Women diagnosed at early stage have a much higher five-year survival rate than those diagnosed at a later stage. However, only 15 percent of patients are diagnosed early2.
|Survival Rate and Diagnosis For Varied Stages (2002-2008)|
|Stage at Diagnosis||Five-year Relative Survival Rate||Percentage of Total Woman Diagnosed|
|Localized (Cancer is limited to organ from which it originated)||91.5%||15%|
|Regional (Cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes or organs and tissue)||71.9%||17%|
|Distant (Cancer has spread to distant organs or lymph nodes)||26.9%||61%|
|Unstaged (not enough information to identify a stage)||22%||7%|
Currently, there is no reliable and easy-to-administer early detection test for ovarian cancer (the Pap test, which screens for cervical cancer, does not detect ovarian cancer). Stage I Diagnostics’ panel of blood tests have shown, in initial studies, the ability to detect early and late stage ovarian cancer as well as all four major subtypes. At Stage I Diagnostics, we are working diligently to bring our ovarian cancer diagnostic panel to market to fill this need and help make ovarian cancer a survivable disease.
1 World Cancer Research Fund Internations http://www.wcrf.org/int/cancer-facts-figures/data-specific-cancers/ovarian-cancer-statistics
2 Howlader N, Noone AM, Krapcho M, Neyman N, Aminou R, Altekruse SF, Kosary CL, Ruhl J, Tatalovich Z, Cho H, Mariotto A, Eisner MP, Lewis DR, Chen HS, Feuer EJ, Cronin KA (eds). SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2009 (Vintage 2009 Populations), National Cancer Institute. Bethesda, MD, http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2009_pops09/, based on November 2011 SEER data submission, posted to the SEER web site, 2012.