A Clinicopathological Study of Surface Epithelial Tumors of the Ovary: A Retrospective Analysis at a Tertiary Care Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Background Ovarian cancer is a prevalent gynecological cancer in women and one of the most common cancers globally. Factors such as the use of oral contraceptives, multiparity, and breastfeeding offer protection, while obesity, nulliparity, smoking, and genetic changes increase the risk. Ovarian cancer is asymptomatic in the early stages, typically becomes symptomatic in advanced stages, and can be divided into various histologic subtypes. This study aimed to determine the incidence of epithelial ovarian tumors according to their type and clinical presentation. Aim The study was conducted to determine the incidence of epithelial ovarian tumors according to their type and clinical presentation among women in a tertiary care center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This is important because very few studies have been conducted in Saudi Arabia regarding the incidence of surface epithelial ovarian tumors. Methodology This retrospective cohort study utilized histopathological analysis to categorize ovarian neoplasms. Data on sociodemographic characteristics, histopathological findings, and clinical features were collected and analyzed from the tertiary care center to understand the distribution of surface epithelial ovarian tumors. The data were cleaned in Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, US) and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 29.0.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, US). Results Our comprehensive study examined 252 women with ovarian tumors, revealing a predominant age group of 41-50 years (n=63, 25.0%), with the majority being married (n=193, 76.6%). Benign tumors were the most common (n=139, 55.2%), followed by malignant (n=87, 34.5%) and borderline (n=25, 9.9 %) tumors. The initial symptoms frequently included abdominal pain (n=105, 41.7%) and abdominal masses (n=65, 25.8%). Most tumors were primary (n=110, 43.7%). Protective factors such as breastfeeding/parity were significant (n=99, 39.3%), while nulliparity was a notable risk factor (n=31, 12.3%). The most elevated tumor marker was cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) (n=93, 36.9%). Treatment often involved total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (TAH-BSO) (n=92, 36.5%), with some requiring additional chemotherapy (n=36, 14.3%). Conclusion Our study demonstrated that surface epithelial tumors, particularly serous epithelial tumors, were the most common ovarian neoplasms, with abdominal pain being a frequent initial symptom. Effective management often included surgery and chemotherapy. Breastfeeding and parity were significant protective factors and CA-125 was a prevalent tumor marker.