• Surgical staging of primary carcinoma of the ovary, fallopian tube, and peritoneum
• Predicting overall survival and recurrence risk
• Determining the obligite need for adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy

• Puncturing or forcefully tearing an intact malignant cyst during surgery immediately catapults an IA patient to IC1.
• This iatrogenic mistake subjects the patient to harsh but necessary heavy-metal chemotherapy (carboplatin) that they could have otherwise avoided.
• Never aspirate or morsellate a massive adnexal mass if malignancy is a realistic possibility on preoperative imaging.

• Stage IA/IB (Low Grade OR Grade 1): Observation is acceptable; surgery was curative.
• Stage IA/IB (High Grade, Clear Cell, Grade 3): Chemotherapy required.
• Stage IC and above: Universal requirement for adjuvant chemotherapy (typically 6 cycles Carboplatin + Paclitaxel).
• Stage III/IV: Evaluate for primary cytoreductive surgery versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy initially, followed by interval debulking.

The fundamental recognition by pathologists like Dr. Robert Kurman that pelvic serous cancers originate in the fallopian tube epithelium (STIC lesions) drove FIGO to entirely restructure how these diseases are tracked.