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Spotlight on Ovarian Cancer AwarenessOn this page Ovarian Cancer FactsThe American Cancer Society estimates that 25,580 new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed and 16,090 women will die of the disease during 2004. Among U.S. women, ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death after lung and bronchus, breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers. Ovarian cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. Although most cases of ovarian cancer occur in women aged 50 years or older, the disease can occur in younger women. The most common form—epithelial—is usually diagnosed in women aged 40 years or older; risk for all forms of the disease begins to increase at age 40. A woman’s chance of having ovarian cancer increases if one or more of her close relatives (mother, daughter, or sister) has had the disease. Although rare, women may inherit genes that substantially increase the risk of ovarian cancer. Women with a history of breast, endometrial, or colon cancer also have a greater chance of developing ovarian cancer than women who have not had these cancers. Several factors have been identified that decrease a woman’s ovarian cancer risk, which include childbearing and the use of oral contraceptives. Also visit the Ovarian Cancer Program Fact Sheet for additional facts on ovarian cancer. CDC Funded ProjectsCDC supports many ongoing projects in ovarian cancer with fiscal year 2004 appropriations of approximately $5 million. Several studies are under way at CDC-funded Prevention Research Centers. These include multiyear research projects at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The primary objective of these studies is to identify factors that distinguish women with ovarian cancers that were diagnosed at stages I and II from those with cancers diagnosed at later stages by conducting a literature review, a review of medical records of all patients diagnosed between 1995 and 1999, and in-person interviews with a subsample of women. For more information on how CDC addresses ovarian cancer, go to CDC Funded Ovarian Cancer Research.
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