Epidemiology and etiology of ovarian cancer: a review.

Ovarian cancer is the most frequent cause of death from gynecologic malignancies in the western world. Much effort has been put into attempts to correlate differences in incidence rates with environmental, endocrinologic, and genetic factors. A review of the literature reveals that there is currently no evidence to incriminate any single etiologic factor for this group of tumors. There is growing evidence of familial predisposition in a small group of patients and of a relationship with reproductive history. If current knowledge of the epidemiology of ovarian cancer is to be translated into disease prevention, more attention should be paid to women at risk because of their family history, and more awareness should be made of the protective effect of oral contraceptives.