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1. Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of gynecologic cancer deaths among American women. It is the eighth most common cancer in women. An estimated 20,180 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2006, according to the American Cancer Society, and about 15,310 will die of the disease.

2. Only 19 percent of ovarian cancers are diagnosed at an early stage, when the cancer is confined to the ovary. Most cases are diagnosed after the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, making it difficult to treat successfully.

3. One woman out of every 58 (approximately 1.7 percent) will develop ovarian cancer at some point in her lifetime.

4. 4. Ovarian cancer is most common in women who have already gone through menopause. The average age for developing ovarian cancer is 61.

5. For the small number of women who are fortunate enough to have their cancer diagnosed before it has spread beyond the ovary, the chance of surviving five years after diagnosis is as high as 90-95 percent.

6. About 76 percent of women with ovarian cancer survive one year after diagnosis, and 45 percent survive five years after being diagnosed. The survival rate drops as the cancer becomes more advanced, with a less than 14 percent five-year survival rate in women whose cancer has spread beyond the abdomen.

7. A major risk factor for getting ovarian cancer is a history of breast, endometrial or colon cancer.

8. The only sure way to diagnose ovarian cancer is through microscopic evaluation of tissue obtained during surgery.

9. Hycamtin is one of the first of a new kind of anti-cancer drugs that kills cancer cells by inhibiting an enzyme essential to the replication of human DNA.

10. The first step in treating ovarian cancer is to remove as much of the cancerous tumor as possible, called tumor debulking.

11. Surgery to treat ovarian cancer may involve removal of one or both of your ovaries (oophorectomy), your uterus (hysterectomy) or the lining of your abdomen (omentectomy). In some cases, lymph nodes may also be removed.

12. If the tumor has spread beyond the ovaries, chemotherapy and rarely, radiation, will also be used as part of treatment.