Ovarian malignancy at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, north central Nigeria.

To establish the relative frequency, age distribution, socio-demographic risk factors, clinical presentation, management and histological variants of ovarian cancerseen within the study period. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective review of all cases of ovarian cancer seen at the Jos University TeachingHospital, Jos, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. SETTING: Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. SUBJECTS: Women who had ovarian cancer. RESUL TS: A total of 26 cases of ovarian cancer were recorded within the study period. 20 case files were available for analysis. The age range was 20 - 70 years. The average age of developing ovarian cancer is 42.86 :i: 2 S.D, Forty percent (40%) of the women (n=9) were nulliparous. Sixty percent (60%) of the patients (n=12) presented with stage IV disease. Seventy five percent (75%) of the patients (n=15) had surgery and chemotherapy as the mode of management. The commonest histological variant is epithelial ovarian cancer as seen in 55% of the cases (n=11). CONCLUSION: Ovarian cancer is a gynaecological malignancy that affects women of all age groups. Nulliparity is a significant risk factor. Most of the women present in late stage disease and this gives credence to the need for a screening method to diagnose early stage of the disease. Keywords : Ovarian cancer, Frequency, Clinical features, histology2. Highland Medical Research Journal Vol. 5 (2) 2007 pp. 56-59