t r u t h o u t | In King's Death, a Lesson in Ovarian Cancer...

. "Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of gynecologic cancer deaths in the United States," said Robert Bristow, director of the Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service and the Ovarian Cancer Center of Excellence at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. "That fact has held true over the last 20 or 30 years."

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 Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer in women, reports the American Cancer Society (ACS), and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in women. Five-year survival rates for ovarian cancer are 44 percent overall, compared to about 88 percent for breast cancer survivors and 99 percent for prostate cancer survivors, according to the ACS. Most ovarian cancer cases occur after menopause; half are found in women older than 63, according to a booklet developed by the ACS and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. King was 78.

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Fewer than half of ovarian cancer patients live more than five years after diagnosis, according to the ACS. When cancer is diagnosed and treated before it spreads outside of the ovary, the five-year survival rate jumps to 90 to 95 percent, but only 19 percent of ovarian cancers are found at that early stage.

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  Most cases - about 51 percent - are diagnosed at stage III, when the cancer has spread into other abdominal tissues and lymph nodes. This is the stage at which King's cancer was diagnosed.

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  Stage II cancers - which make up about 10 percent of ovarian cancers - have five-year survival rates ranging from 51 percent to 69 percent. Stage IV cases, in which cancer has spread to the liver and outside of the abdomen, have a five-year survival rate of 12 percent.

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