Although the lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is very low, the mortality rate is high, and the 5-year survival rate is less than 50%. Life expectancy with ovarian cancer has been slow to improve because the prognosis for this disease is largely dependent on early diagnosis, and there are at the present time no reliable methods to identify ovarian cancer at an early stage. However, identifying women at risk for ovarian cancer enables clinicians to offer 2 tests that might signal the need for further diagnostic testing in a specific population. The single greatest indicator of risk is family history of ovarian cancer, in either the maternal or paternal line. There is also an increased risk of ovarian cancer in families with nonpolyposis colorectal cancer.