Analysis of the relationship between ovarian cancer and endometriosis

Objective To explore the relationship between ovarian cancer and endometriosis by analyzing the cases of ovary cancer with endometriosis.Methods Two hundred and forty-seven primary ovarian cancer cases from 1987 to 2006 were analyzed retrospectively.Patients were divided into two groups according to the pathological finding.Cases of ovarian cancer with endometriosis were in A group and cases of ovarian cancer without endometriosis were in B group.The clinical,pathological stage and histology classification of ovarian carcinoma were compared.Results There were 26 cases of ovarian cancer with endometriosis(10.5%)in all cases.The incidence of pathology Ⅰ stage in group A was 69.3% and pathology Ⅲ stage in group B was 61%.Among the 26 cases,12 cases were endometrio-carcinoma,7 cases were clear cell carcinoma,4 cases were mucinous carcinoma,2 cases were serous carcinoma and 1 case was of other type.The cases with clear cell carcinoma had higher incidence of endometriosis than cases with other histological classification.Conclusion The diagnosis of malignant change of endometriosis maybe associated with the degree、classification of ovary cancer.There is a compact relationship between endometriosis and ovarian cancer,especially the types of endometrio-carcinoma and clear cell carcinoma,the malignant change of endometriosis may be one of the sources of these two ovarian cancers.