Treatments for Advanced Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is treatable but has the unfortunate characteristic of not displaying many symptoms until it has progressed further, often into the abdomen. This makes treatment more difficult and more rigorous than it would be if the disease had been caught early. Symptoms that eventually present themselves can include pressure or pain in the abdomen, bloating, digestion problems, fatigue and irregular menstrual bleeding. Treatments are numerous and are often used in combination to obtain optimum results.

Chemotherapy

• Chemotherapy is a common treatment option for ovarian cancer and is often used in conjunction with surgery. It involves taking several types of drugs intravenously such as carboplatin and paclitaxel to kill off cancer cells. This combination of drugs is usually the initial chemotherapy treatment. If this is not effective, a more rigorous treatment plan is utilized. This involves injecting chemotherapy drugs into the abdomen by means of a catheter to help the drugs get precisely to a targeted area. Called intra-abdominal infusion, this method of chemotherapy works by getting directly in the affected area and killing off cancer cells that might otherwise hide and remain inaccessible from the bloodstream. A combination of both types of chemotherapy is often used for maximum results. Chemotherapy of this sort causes significant side effects, including nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Surgery

• Surgery is often employed in the treatment of ovarian cancer and is frequently followed by chemotherapy or radiation or a combination of the two. The surgery typically involves the removal of both ovaries, at least, though it can involve a hysterectomy, which involves the removal of the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, lymph nodes and some abdominal tissue.

Radiation

• Radiation is not frequently in the treatment of ovarian cancer but may be used to help to relieve the symptoms of the disease. In these cases, external beam radiation therapy or EBCT is used to ease pain and the other negative affects associated with the disease.

Immunotherapy

• Immunotherapy is a type of treatment that uses the body's immune system to fight against the cancer cells. It does this by building up the strength of the immune system with various antibodies. While this mode of treatment is not regularly used in treating ovarian cancer, it is currently being studied. For instance, interleukin-2 is sometimes injected into the abdominal cavity following surgery and chemotherapy to build the immune system and help extend remission. Sometimes substances that have been engineered to target and invade cancer cells are used called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in conjunction with interleukin-2 for maximum effect. Still other immunotherapies are being studied and utilized on a trial basis, including Trastuzumab and other antigen vaccines.

Gene Therapy

• Gene therapy is not widely used in the treatment of ovarian cancer, but it's currently sitting on the horizon as a possible way of the future. Normal cells might turn into cancer cells because of genes that express themselves too rapidly or too often, and gene therapy can be used to slow down this cell turn over. One way scientists are looking to introduce proper genetic information into cancer cells is through a virus that does not cause illness but targets, infiltrates and kills the cancer cells.