Diagnostics and treatment of rare ovarian malignancies

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most frequent cancer in women. The relative 5-year survival is currently 42% [1]. The rarer gynecological neoplasms include nonepithelial ovarian tumors; ovarian sex cord stromal tumors with ca. 8% and malignant germ cell tumors with ca. 3-10% of all primary ovarian tumors make up a large part of this rare group [2, 3]. Other very rare malignant ovarian neoplasms that need to be distinguished are small cell (of the pulmonary or hypercalcemic type) and neuroendocrine ovarian carcinomas, sarcomas and lymphomas. Due to the low incidence of these neoplasms there are only a few evidence-based guidelines as a basis for action. Affected patients should therefore be connected to specialized gynecological oncology centers and the possibility of participating in a study should be examined (for an overview of the current study groups and studies carried out see ). Patient data should be collected in cancer registries.