Histopathological spectrum of ovarian tumors - a two year experience at a tertiary care hospital

Background: Ovarian cancer encompasses a heterogenous group of malignancies that vary in etiology, molecular biology, and numerous other characteristics. Their complex nature, unpredictable behaviour, prognosis and varying therapeutic strategies, necessitates an accurate diagnosis. Aims and Objectives: The present study was undertaken to study the diverse histomorphological patterns of ovarian tumors over a period of 2 years(June-2010 to May-2012. Results: Out of 119 neoplastic ovarian lesions, 57.98% (69) were labeled as benign, 1.7% (2) as borderline and. 42.0% (48) as malignant. Age of the patients ranged from 1 to 70 years. with maximum cases (42.8 %) seen in the age group of 21-40 years. The commonest category of the ovarian tumors encountered in our series was epithelial tumors (73.94%) followed by germ cell tumors (16.8%). Abdominal pain was the most common presenting symptom. Conclusion: Benign ovarian tumours were more common than malignant ones across all age groups. Surface epithelial tumours were the most common histopathological type of ovarian tumour. Due to vague symptoms, patients present late. Development of methods for early diagnosis of ovarian neoplasia is therefore, a pressing need today. The relative frequency of incidence of different ovarian tumours shows regional variations, highlighting the need to identify region-specific risk factors.