abstract: Tumor Type and Substage Predict Survival in Stage I and II Ovarian Carcinoma: Insights and Implications

"Tumor grade has been the most accepted prognostic indicator of disease-specific survival among women with stage I and II ovarian carcinomas. Many investigators have included stage IB, grade 1 at diagnosis as low-risk disease and have suggested that women in this category should not receive adjuvant therapy. However, grading assignment appears to be unreliable because of problems with reproducibility and lack of consideration of biological differences between the different tumor types. Some investigators believe that classification based on tumor typing using new histopathological criteria was more reproducible than grade assignment and would more accurately reflect biological differences..."cont'd