What Do You Know About Ovarian Cancer? Trivia Quiz

It is not known exactly what causes most ovarian cancers. We do know some factors that make a woman more likely to develop epithelial ovarian cancer. However much less is known about risk factors for germ cell and stromal tumors of the ovaries.

There are many theories about the causes of ovarian cancer. Some of them came from looking at the things that change the risk of ovarian cancer. For example, pregnancy and taking birth control pills both lower the risk of ovarian cancer. There are also several genes that can be inherited that can greatly increase a woman's risk of ovarian cancer.

A recent study has shwon that women diagnosed with ovarian cancer who had a overall better quality diet had a survival advantage over those who didn't.

Vegetables prolonged survival, while eating a lot of red meat, processed meat and cured meat had a shorter survival time.

Using oral contraceptives (birth control pills) decreases the risk of developing ovarian cancer, especially among women who use them for several years. Women who used oral contraceptives for 5 or more years have about a 50% lower risk of developing ovarian cancer compared with women who never used oral contraceptives.

Most ovarian cancers are not hereditary. Only about 5-10% of all ovarian cancers are due to inherited mutations.

The most common hereditary mutations occur in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.