Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month: Facts and links to common STIs

Published January 21 2022 inSexual Health

2 minutes read

Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month Australia will be marked in February this year. It is held annually to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer and to share real life stories of women affected by the disease. It highlights the risk factors for ovarian cancer and aims to educate Australians on ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment.

What is Ovarian Cancer?

Ovarian cancer is a malignant tumour in one or both ovaries. There are many types of ovarian cancer. The three most common are the epithelial type (90% of cases) that arises from the cells on the outside of the ovary, the germ cell type (approximately 4% of cases) that arises from the cells which produce eggs and the rare stromal type arising from supporting tissues within the ovary.

Ovarian Cancer Statistics

Ovarian cancer is the eighth most common cancer affecting women in Australia according to cancer.org.au. Every day in Australia four women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

The overall five-year survival rate for women diagnosed with breast cancer is 92%, but with ovarian cancer it is 48%. Approximately 1,720 Australian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year and out of those 1,042 will die from the disease.

What are the signs and symptoms of Ovarian Cancer?

Early testing, diagnosis and treatment of STIs are crucial as they are linked with Ovarian Cancer.

What STIs are associated with Ovarian Cancer?

Using data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort, researchers investigated in 2020 whether a past STI was associated with an increased risk for epithelial ovarian cancer. The cohort include 791 cases of cancer and 1669 matched controls.

Two STIs were associated with an increased risk for epithelial ovarian cancer. First, although Chlamydia trachomatis Pgp3 antibodies were not associated with overall epithelial ovarian cancer risk, they were associated with a higher risk of the mucinous histotype (relative risk [RR], 2.30; 95% CI, 1.22-4.32). Additionally, positive serology for chlamydia heat shock protein 60 was associated with higher risk for epithelial ovarian cancer overall (RR=1.36; 95% CI, 1.13-1.64) and with the serous subtype (RR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.12-1.85). *

The study also revealed that Herpes Simplex Virus-2 was associated with an increased risk for endometrioid epithelial ovarian cancer (RR, 2.35; 95% CI, 1.24-4.43).

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