Three main types of ovarian cancers (tumors)

Epithelial ovarian cancer is by far the most common form of ovarian cancer. Germ cell and stromal ovarian cancers are much less common. Ovarian cancer can also result from a cancer somewhere else in the body that has spread:

• Epithelial ovarian cancer (epithelial ovarian tumors) - derived from cells on the surface of the ovary. It occurs mainly in adults.


• Germ cell ovarian cancer (germ cell ovarian tumors) - derived from the egg-producing cells within the body of the ovary. This rare type of cancer more commonly affects children and teenage girls.


• Stromal ovarian ovarian (sex cord stromal tumors) - develops within the cells that hold the ovaries together.


• Cancers from other organs in the body can spread to the ovaries - metastatic cancers - a metastatic cancer is one that spreads from where it first arose as a primary tumor to other locations in the body.