Fortnightly review: Hereditary ovarian carcinoma

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Abstract
Ovarian carcinoma is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in women in Western countries. Because of inadequate screening methods and the vague nature of the symptoms, patients present late in the course of the disease and the survival rate is poor. There are no strong environmental risk factors, and after age is controlled for the most important risk factor is a family history of ovarian carcinoma. The effect of a positive family history on a woman's risk of ovarian carcinoma is illustrated in table 1. In this review we focus on the hereditary aspects of ovarian carcinoma. #### Summary points We reviewed original articles and expert reviews from journals cited in Medline between 1980 and 1998 and supplemented this information with unpublished data from our colleagues. We also included information from recently published books. In performing the Medline searches we used the following key words: hereditary ovarian carcinoma, breast and ovarian carcinoma syndrome, ovarian cancer screening, prophylactic oophorectomy. Between 5% and 10% of cases of ovarian carcinoma are the result of an inherited gene or genes. The percentage depends on the degree of relatives included in the calculation and the method of case ascertainment.2 Narod et al …