To prevent cancer, more women should consider removing fallopian tubes, experts say

On Wednesday, a leading research and advocacy organization broadened that recommendation in ways that may surprise many women.

Building on evidence that most of these cancers originate in the fallopian tubes, not the ovaries, the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance is urging even women who do not have mutations — that is, most women — to have their fallopian tubes surgically removed if they are finished having children and are planning a gynecologic operation anyway.

In such a procedure, surgeons remove the tubes, which lead from the ovaries to the uterus, but leave the ovaries intact. The ovaries produce hormones that are beneficial even later in life, reducing the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis and sexual dysfunction. Sparing the organs has been linked to lower mortality overall.

“Ovarian cancer is a relatively rare disease, and typically, we don’t message to the general population,” said Audra Moran, president and CEO of the OCRA. “We want everyone with ovaries to know their risk level and know the actions they can take to help prevent ovarian cancer.”

To that end, the group also has begun offering free at-home testing kits to qualifying women who want to find out if they carry genetic mutations such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, which confer an elevated risk for developing both ovarian and breast cancer.

Younger carriers of the mutations might consider removing only the fallopian tubes as an interim step to protect against ovarian cancer and to avoid abrupt early menopause, Moran said, even though the gold-standard treatment for carriers is to remove the ovaries, too.

While women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations have a very high risk for ovarian cancer, a majority of women with the disease do not carry the mutations.

Ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women, according to the American Cancer Society, and accounts for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. Every year, some 19,710 women in the United States have ovarian cancer diagnosed, and about 13,000 women die of it.

The disease is a particularly stealthy malignancy, and it is often diagnosed at a very advanced stage as a result.

📣 For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss out on the latest updates!