[Clinico-pathological study of elderly women with malignant ovarian tumors]

Twenty-five elderly women (those 70 years or older) with borderline and malignant ovarian tumors during the past 20 years were reviewed clinico-pathologically in comparison with 160 younger women (those 69 years or younger). The following results were obtained: 1) The incidence rate of elderly women for all patients of borderline and malignant ovarian tumors was 13.5%, and did not tend to increase in the past several years. 2) The rate that the elderly woman visited first at the other department excepting the department of obstetrics and gynecology was 36%, and which was statistically higher than that of the younger woman (p less than 0.01). 3) Fifty-two % of elderly patients had some complications and the incidence was significantly higher than that (23.1%) of younger patients (p less than 0.005). 4) Histopathologically in elderly patients, 9 patients (36%) were of serous cystadenocarcinoma and 17 patients (68%) were of malignant epithelial tumor (primary ovarian cancer and malignant Brenner tumor). 5) Of elderly patients, 8 (47.1%) were in Stage III and IV, and it was higher incidence than that (33.3%) of younger patients. In advanced cases, the histological grades became more poorly. 6) The survival rate of elderly patients in Stage III and IV was significantly lower than that in Stage I and II. The various treatment for Stage III and IV patients did not demonstrate the correlation in prognosis. In contrast, the survival rate for the group treated surgically in Stage I and II was significantly higher than that of non-surgical group (p less than 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)