Abstract: Ovarian epithelial cancer belongs to a heterogeneous group of tumors，of which tissue type of origin is uncertain. The current researches on the origin of ovarian epithelial malignancy mainly contain three theories including ovarian surface epithelium doctrine，the secondary müllerian system doctrine，extraovarian tissue of origin doctrine and stem cell doctrine. In recent years，morphologic analysis and immunohistochemistry of molecular markers such as p53，bcl-2，PAX8，calretinin，tubulin show that high-grade and low-grade serous ovarian cancers are closely correlated with fallopian tube，but experiment in mice shows ovarian hilum cells have the characteristic of stem cell and express ALDH1 and Lgr5，which are the stem cell markers. The ovarian hilum cells have the capacity of proliferation，differentiation and self-renewal. Therefore the origin of ovarian cancer is mainly focused on fallopian tube theory and stem cell theory.

Key words: Ovarian neoplasms, Epithelial cells, Mullerian ducts, Stem cells