Endometriosis Associated Ovarian Cancer: Case Reports

Introduction Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that is estimated to affect up to 1 in 10 women of reproductive age group (Steinbuch et al. in Int J Mol Sci 25, 2024). Initially considered a benign disease, it is now thought that endometriosis, endometriomas specifically, are neoplastic conditions with the potential to become malignant.

Ovarian cancer, although rare, is more common in women with endometriosis, particularly endometrioid and clear-cell carcinoma types. Over the past few decades, various genetic mutations, microRNAs, and tumour microenvironmental factors have been identified (Chiaffarino et al. in Reprod Sci 31:1642–1650, 2024). Atypical endometriosis is being considered as a transition between endometriosis and ovarian malignancy.

The knowledge of malignant transformation of endometriosis and an understanding of potential risk factors is of paramount importance for determining patients at risk. Women that are known cases of severe endometriosis, large endometriomas, and atypical endometriosis, are an important population for targeted cancer screening and prevention studies. Similar content being viewed by others

Steinbuch SC, Lüß A-M, Eltrop S, Götte M, Kiesel L. Endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer: from molecular pathologies to clinical relevance. Int J Mol Sci. 2024;25:4306. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25084306. Chiaffarino F, Cipriani S, Ricci E, et al. Histologic subtypes in endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer and ovarian cancer arising in endometriosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Reprod Sci. 2024;31:1642–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43032-024-01489-9. Younis JS. Endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer: what are the implications for women with intact endometrioma planning for a future pregnancy? A reproductive clinical outlook. 2022. Biomolecules. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom12111721. Capozzi VA, Scarpelli E, dell’Omo S, Rolla M, Pezzani A, Morganelli G, et al. Atypical endometriosis: a comprehensive systematic review of pathological patterns and diagnostic challenges. Biomedicines. 2024;12:1209. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12061209. Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Ethics declarations Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Additional information Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Sehal Shah is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist; Sarita Bhalerao is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist; Mehul Bhansali is an Oncosurgeon. Rights and permissions Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. About this article Cite this article Shah, S., Bhalerao, S. & Bhansali, M. Endometriosis Associated Ovarian Cancer: Case Reports. J Obstet Gynecol India (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13224-025-02291-6 Received: Accepted: Published: Version of record: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13224-025-02291-6