-Personal or family history of breast, ovarian or colon cancer
-Increasing age
-Undesired fertility
-All women are at risk
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-Symptoms do exist and can be extremely vague, yet increase over time
-Early detection increases survival rate of early stage disease
-A Pap Smear DOES NOT detect ovarian cancer
Surgery to treat ovarian cancer is complex. It requires a high level of specialized skill. Studies indicate that women whose surgery is performed by a gynecologic oncologist have significantly better survival rates. In most cases, surgical treatment requires the removal of both ovaries, the uterus, fallopian tubes, nearby lymph glands and a fold of fatty tissue called the omentum, a common site for ovarian cancer to spread. The surgery is known as laparotomy. The surgeon also removes as much of the tumor as possible. This process is known as surgical debulking or cytoreductive surgery. Mayo Clinic patients experience better outcomes than patients at most other medical centers in part because Mayo surgeons are able to achieve "optimal debulking" at signficantly higher rates than the national average. Optimal debulking is achieved when less than 1 cubic centimeter of tumor remains in the abdomen after surgery.
Chemotherapy
After surgery, most patients are treated with chemotherapy, which uses powerful drugs and drug combinations to kill cancer cells. This is known as adjuvant chemotherapy. Current standard chemotherapy for ovarian epithelial cancers generally combines two agents, carboplatin and paclitaxel (Taxol) for approximately six treatments given three to four weeks apart. Mayo Clinic research contributed to the establishment of this standard regimen. The overall response rate in advanced (Stage III or IV) disease is between 70 and 80 percent. There are many types of chemotherapy drugs, including platinum complexes (such as carboplatin), mitotic inhibitors (such as paclitaxel), alkylating agents, antimetabolites, antitumor antibiotics and DNA topoisomerase inhibitors. Because these medications work in different ways used together, they can be more effective against tumors than when used alone.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays to kill cancer cells. The use of radiation therapy to treat ovarian cancer has declined in recent years, in part because of improvements in chemotherapy, but radiation therapy may still have a role for some patients. For example, radiation therapy may be considered for women who have a localized recurrence of ovarian cancer or women who can't tolerate chemotherapy. One form of radiation therapy is whole abdominal radiation, which uses external radiation to treat ovarian cancer that remains localized in the abdomen, especially for recurrent cancer. Mayo Clinic is one of a few medical centers that offers this treatment.
