Treatment
Surgery is the preferred treatment and is frequently necessary for diagnosis. Studies have shown that surgery performed by a specialist in gynecologic oncology results in a higher rate of cure. Chemotherapy is used as after surgery to treat any residual disease. Chemotherapy can also be used to treat women who have a recurrence. Radiation therapy is rarely used in ovarian cancer in the United States.
Expectations (prognosis)
Ovarian cancer is disproportionately deadly for a number of reasons. First, symptoms are vague and non-specific, so women and their physicians frequently attribute them to more common conditions. By the time the cancer is diagnosed, the tumor has often spread beyond the ovaries.
Also, ovarian cancers shed malignant cells that frequently implant on the uterus, bladder, bowel, and lining of the bowel wall (omentum). These cells can begin forming new tumor growths before cancer is even suspected.
Second, because no cost-effective screening test for ovarian cancer exists, more than 50 percent of women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed in the advanced stages of the disease.
Ovarian cancer is rarely diagnosed in its early stages; it is usually quite advanced by the time diagnosis is made. The outcome is often poor. The five-year survival rate for all stages is only 35 percent to 38 percent. If, however, diagnosis is made early in the disease, five-year survival rates can reach 90 percent to 98 percent. Germ Cell Ovarian Cancer has a much better prognosis, but is rarer.
Despite this poor prognosis, patients should keep in mind that all such studies are retrospective in nature: ie, they can only look into past results. Therefore they cannot take into account the benefits on survival that newer therapies may provide.
Complications
* spread of the cancer to other organs
* progressive function loss of various organs
* ascites (fluid in the abdomen)
* blockage of the intestines