Early-Onset Ovarian Cancer <30 Years: What Do We Know about Its Genetic Predisposition?
Ovarian cancer in young women (age 18-30) is rare being about 5% of the total. It was assumed that most ovarian cancer in women of this age was due to inherited genetic mutations. Usually, ovarian cancer is a disease of the elderly. Of whom about 20% have a genetic mutation, which causes the disease. This retrospective survey of more than 300 young women from four different data sets found much less genetic mutation; about 3%.
A different spectrum of disease is seen in the young, with about half of ovarian cancer arising from embryonal germ cells. Serous Ovarian Cancer is much less common in young women, being about 40% of all cases compared to 90% overall. Low Grade disease is more likely in the young. However, survival is almost 50% worse for the young, (HR0.53) despite these seemingly favourable pathology types. This is another example of the different nature of ovarian cancer in young women.
The reason why some young women develop ovarian cancer is unknown. It seems to be a random misfortune not associated with any genetic or environmental predisposition. The poor outcomes for these women are also unexplained.
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