The mostly used mode of diagnosis for the ovarian cancer is that of finding the prognostic factors. From these factors, the best known are stage and, in some advanced cases of disease, the volume of residual disease is also taken into consideration. At the other pole, there are factors such as the patient’s age, DNA ploidy, or histopathologic grade, which are less considered prognostic factors by specialists.

The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) created a well determined list of ways of staging the gynecological cancers. The FIGO stage is very accurate in ovarian cancer prognosis, compared to other methods. The staging of gynecological cancers takes into consideration both the surgical and pathological discoveries into account. This is why, a new term was brought to light, that of “surgicopathologic stage”.


If a woman was diagnosed with FIGO stage I ovarian carcinoma, she must know that this prognosis is not very grave, as there are other prognosis. The FIGO stage I ovarian carcinoma can be discovered undergoing a special and complete gynecological procedure, which is done by a gynecological oncologist. At this stage I, the chances of recovery are exponentially bigger (90 %) than, as well as patients with stages IA and IB. The most dangerous stages of the stage I FIGO category are the grade 3 histogoly and IC substage. In these later stages, the survival rates are smaller than in the stage IA and IB cases (5 year survival for over 90 % of cases), the rate reaching smaller survival numbers. Even if the IC substage signifies malignant cells, it is possible that these cells are only exfoliated, while the most IB stages are more dangerous and they express separated primary tumors.

In the stage II of ovarian cancer are included the small and heterogeneous type of cancer, which represents 10 % of ovarian cancers. This stage refers to the extention of the ovarian cancer to other organs, specifically the pelvic, fallopian tubes, and pelvic peritoneum.

However, the ovarian cancer is mostly found in stage III, with a number of 50 % of the discovered cases. The characteristic of this type of cancer is its spreading towards the peritoneal regions, which are the pelvic and abdominal peritoneum. Also, the metastases to retroperitoneal lymph nodes are quite often encountered.


Another stage for gynecological cancer is the stage IV, which includes parenchymal liver metastases or extra-abdominal metastases. The number of patients that were discovered in the IV stage reaches 13 %. The metastatic sites are found in these cases in the liver and lungs. Also, there is one-third of the patients that have ovarian cancer, who have pleural effusions, while ¾ of the women in this stage present malignant cells. In some of these cases, the metastases happen in the spleen as well, and they might need splenectomy. The brain metastases in the stage IV are less encountered and only 0.1 of the grave cases.

Nowadays, the grading of the gynecological or ovarian cancer is clinically necessary only to define the stage I of the disease’s evolution. This happens because at lower grade tumors, the chemotherapy may not be recommended. More information about the stages of ovarian cancer can be found at  http://ovariancancer.jhmi.edu and http://www.i-ovariancancer.com/ovarian-cancer-stage/.