Ovarian cancer does not begin in the ovaries, but in the fallopian tubes, was the conclusion of researchers at the Cancer Institute in Boston. This explains why women do not even know that they suffer from this form of cancer until later, when discovered in critical phases.
The results of the new study could provide valuable clues to the researchers working on “targeted” treatment to fight the cancer without symptoms. The researchers have taken pre-cancerous cells from the fallopian tubes and let them grow and multiply in the laboratory.
“Just like the real cancer cells, these artificial cells have proliferated fast. There was a tendency for them to detach from the parent tissue and grow in other parts of the body“, said Ronny Drapkin, the author of the study.
The fifth fatal form of cancer in women
Although there are older suppositions in this respect, this is the first study establishing that originally this disease arises not in the ovaries, but in the fallopian tubes, that transports the egg from the ovary to the uterus.
Therefore, in women genetically predisposed to ovarian cancer, tubal examination is essential.
Ovarian cancer is the fifth fatal form of cancer in women, and affects 200,000 women annually worldwide, and killing another 115,000.