Introduction: Ovarian cancer is one of the leading health problems, as it is the underlying cause of disease and deaths of a large number of women around the world. Postmenopausal female population, in whom ovarian carcinoma is most often diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease, is primarily affected.
Material and methods: We used data from Hospital Registry for Malignant Neoplasms at Oncology Institute of Voijvodina for the period from 2001 to 2008, according to which 422 cases of ovarian carcinoma were reported. The obtained data were classified into three groups according to FIGO classification of ovarian malignant neoplasms. The statistical assessment of data employed the method of linear trend and tests of statistical significance (t-test).
Results: The results of our study showed that most cases of diagnosed disease were advanced forms of ovarian cancer, FIGO stages II and IV. The linear trend of the reported cases in stage 1 for the period 2001/2008 showed a descending trend. According to the processed data, in the same period of time, stage II showed an ascending trend, while stages III and IV described together showed a moderate ascending linear trend.
Conclusion: A vast majority of cases of ovarian cancer are detected in advanced stages of the disease, which is at the same time the group with the worst prognosis. Special attention should be paid to the group of patients with positive family history, as well as the presence of BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genetic mutations. Currently existing diagnostic procedures have not given good results individually in terms of high sensitivity for diagnosis of early stages.