Ovarian cancer represents a "silent killer" of women worldwide. Although it ranks as the third most common gynecologic malignancy, it is notorious for its higher mortality (1). Ultrasound represents the first imaging modality routinely performed in women with pelvic masses, and several reports have shown that most ovarian tumors are incidentally detected during physical examination or at the time of pelvic imaging (2). Additionally, approximately 70% of malignant ovarian neoplasms are diagnosed at advanced stages, leading to complex treatment modalities and therefore a poor prognosis (3). Early or preoperative detection of benign and malignant tumors is important to improve the prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer. A comprehensive literature review was conducted on ultrasound for the timely and effective diagnosis of benign ovarian tumors, based on scientific evidence of temporal relevance. A literature search was conducted in electronic data repositories: Redalyc, Scielo, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, among others, and they were evaluated based on the feasibility, quality, clarity, relevance, and truthfulness of the information related to the topic, as well as the timeliness of the scientific content. Indexed articles published in the last 12 years in English and Spanish language were selected from the National Library of Medicine of the National Center for Biotechnology Information: PubMed. Thirty-five articles (100%) from indexed journals were extracted and selected. Review articles, systematic literature reviews, and clinical case reports were included. The use of different ultrasound scoring systems (IOTA SR, IOTA SRRA, ADNEX model with or without CA125, and O-RADS) can be used in the differentiation of both benign and malignant masses and are similar to the subjective assessment of an experienced sonographer.
