Salpingectomy as a Potential Ovarian Cancer Risk-Reducing Procedure

Accumulated evidence over the past 10 years has strongly indi-cated that the fallopian tube is the site of origin for many high-grade serous carcinomas (1), which represent 50 % to 60 % of all epithelial ovarian cancers. This multi-origin model of ovarian cancer development has important implications for preven-tion of ovarian cancer: if some or all high-grade serous tumors develop in the fallopian tube, then bilateral salpingectomy could prevent this most aggressive form of ovarian cancer. However, to date, no large-scale data regarding the impact of salpingec-tomy on ovarian cancer incidence have been available. The article by Falconer et al. (2) is the first to address this question. This study combined data from several population registries in Sweden to compare incidence of ovarian cancer in women with a previous gynecologic procedure for benign indications (salpingectomy, tubal ligation, total abdominal hysterectom