Treatment of patients with ovarian cancer
Patients with ovarian cancer are treated individually. The basic method of treatment is the operation, precisely revealing the spread of disease and removing as much of the tumor as possible. Due to the nature of cancer spread, extensive and demanding operative procedures in the abdominal cavity are often necessary. Following surgery, most patients are treated with cytostatics. Combinations of different cytostatics are used, cisplatin preparations being the most important. Some patients are treated with percutaneous irradiation or intraperitoneal application of radioactive substances. Various immune system regulators play only a limited part in cancer treatment. The same is true of some hormones. The results of treatment in ovarian cancer patients are not such as we would like them to be. The main reason lies in the fact that most cases are discovered in the progressed stage of disease. Apart from the stage of disease, the type and differentiation of the tumor, lymph node involvement and DNA ploidy, the method of treatment also greatly affects patient survival.