MSK gynecologic cancer experts describe surgery to remove the ovaries and fallopian tubes of women at high risk of developing ovarian cancer.

Learn more about ovarian cancer risk and why a woman would have her ovaries removed here: http://www.mskcc.org/blog/why-might-woman-have-her-ovaries-removed

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{partial transcript}
Let’s say we have a woman who has a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. The hot topic is: should she have her ovaries taken out? Talk to me about that.

For patients that have a known genetic mutation, their lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer is increased substantially. General population-based risk for a woman in this country is 1.7 percent – that is the chance that in her lifetime, at some point, she’ll develop ovarian cancer. For BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation carriers, that risk can be as high as 40 to 60 percent lifetime risk. That’s huge.

So really, it goes to understanding your family history. If there are triggers, then meet with a genetic counselor to get the genetic testing because that can be so important for family members who are not infected with the disease in terms of what they can do to help protect themselves.

We’ve already talked about how there’s not a very effective screening tool – the best that we have is CA 125 and the pelvic ultrasound. We do recommend that until the completion of childbearing and at that point, we start to have a discussion about prophylactic or preventative removal of the ovaries because of their extraordinary high risk. That does confer about a 90 to 95 percent risk reduction – so it really goes go a long way to decrease one’s risk.
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