What Is the Life Expectancy of Ovarian Cancer?

What is the life expectancy of ovarian cancer? Having been diagnosed with ovarian cancer can feel frightening or overwhelming. It is only natural to be concerned about things like prognosis, survival rates, treatments, and life expectancy.

 
Survival Rates in Brief

To put it simply, a survival rate is the percentage of people in a treatment or study group who are still alive for a certain time after the initial diagnosis of a disease.

In the case of ovarian cancer, a relative 5-year survival rate means the percentage of people who are still alive 5 years after their initial diagnosis of cancer.

 
Stages of Ovarian Cancer

The survival rates for ovarian cancer are grouped based on the stage or how far ovarian cancer has spread. So, it is important to know about the stages of cancer.

There are four stages of ovarian cancer: Stage I through Stage IV. Each stage describes how far the spread of the cancer is as well as how aggressive it is.

 

• Stage I
  Stage I means that cancer hasn’t spread beyond the ovaries.
  
  
• Stage II
  Stage II means that cancer has begun to spread beyond the ovaries to other areas within the pelvis.
  
  
• Stage III
  At Stage III, the cancer is in either one or both ovaries and has spread beyond the pelvis to nearby lymph nodes and/or other parts of the abdomen.
  
  
• Stage IV
  At Stage IV, cancer has spread to distant organs or areas in the body, such as the tissue inside the liver or lungs.

What Is the Life Expectancy of Ovarian Cancer?

So, what is the life expectancy of ovarian cancer? Unfortunately, there is no exact figure of life expectancy for ovarian cancer.

That said, there are survival rates that can help you understand your situation better. In general, the earlier ovarian cancer is diagnosed, the better the survival rate of the patient.

Here are the stages of ovarian cancer:

• Stage I
  The majority of women who have been diagnosed with Stage I ovarian cancer have a great prognosis with a five-year survival rate of over 90%.
  
  
• Stage II
  The five-year survival rate of women who have been diagnosed with Stage II ovarian cancer is approx. 70%.
  
  
• Stage III
  Most women who have been diagnosed with Stage III ovarian cancer have a five-year survival rate of about 39%.
  
  
• Stage IV
  Most women who have been diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer have a five-year survival rate of approx. 17%.

So if the survival rate of Stage I cancer is over 90%, that means over 90% of people who are diagnosed with Stage I cancer are still alive after five years of their initial diagnosis.

 

What You Should Know About Survival Rates

• Although knowing the survival rates can help you understand your situation, you should know that the numbers serve only as a general outline.
  
  
• Survival rates don’t take everything into account. They are grouped based on the stage of ovarian cancer or how far it spread, among other things.
  
  
• Other important factors, such as the patients’ overall health and age and how effective the treatment is, are not taken into account. And these factors can affect the outlook of a patient.
  
  
• It is important to note that survival rates are based on a large number of people. This is why the individual outlook of patients with ovarian cancer can differ from one another.

There is no clear answer for the question “What is the life expectancy of ovarian cancer? However, the survival rates for ovarian cancer are known.

While it is true that the numbers can’t tell you how long you will live after the initial diagnosis, they can give you an idea about your situation and how likely your treatment will be effective.