Familial ovarian cancer and early ovarian cancer: Biologic, pathologic, and clinical features

Women with ovarian cancer have poor overall survival rates, largely because the disease is so often diagnosed at an advanced, less curable stage. Beca use women with early ovarian cancer experience good survival rates, there i s great interest in the study and detection of early disease. Familial ovar ian cancer has been relevant to the study of early ovarian cancer in two di fferent ways. First, women from ovarian cancer families often undergo proph ylactic oophorectomy to prevent development of this disease. These ovaries have been studied for pathologic or molecular features that might represent early preinvasive disease. Second, screening tests to detect presymptomati c ovarian cancer have selectively targeted this population because of the i ncreased positive predictive value of these tests in this population. A rev iew of the clinical, pathologic, epidemiologic, and molecular biologic aspe cts of familial ovarian cancer provides a background to facilitate understa nding these issues.