Ovarian Cancer in Iran: National Based Study

BACKGROUND: Ovarian cancer (OC) is the 7(th) most common cancer, with 239,000 new cases per year. In Iran, it is the 8(th) most common cancer, with an ASIR of 3.9/100,000 women. The 5-year overall survival in Iran based on previous studies is about 61% which in comparison with eastern countries has better survival. METHODS: The study included patients from the Iran National Cancer Registry from 2009–2014. Several steps were taken to control data quality. This study used a Kaplan-Meier survival curve to compare OC survival rates across geographical, pathological, and other variables. All analyses were done in R (4.02) and SPSS (26), with a 0.05 P-value considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The study enrolled 7977 cases of OC. OC's ASIR was 4.10/100,000. In epithelial and non-specific OC, ASIR was >0.5. Five-year survival was 55% and 10-year survival was 45%. CONCLUSION: OC is the 8(th) most common cancer in Iran, with lower age-specific incidence and better overall survival than East Asia and North America. In Iran, as in Eastern Europe, OC incidence correlated with reduced total fertility rate and population aging. Five and 10-year overall survival rates were 55% and 44%, respectively, higher than the West. This may be because late stage OC patients are excluded from pathology and classified as “undiagnosed” in death certificates or hospitalization files.