Over the past 20 years, the rate at which women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer has fallen, but this disease is still crucial to monitor as it accounts for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. According to The American Cancer Society, a woman’s risk of getting ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 75, and white woman are more likely to develop this disease than any other ethnicity.
In order to get the right treatment for ovarian cancer, you must seek out an oncologist, a doctor that specializes in treating tumors. There are two main treatments used to treat ovarian cancer – surgery and chemotherapy.
Surgery is often the initial treatment of choice used in the early stages of diagnosis. Surgery is completed through a series of biopsies in your abdomen and pelvis to have the affected ovary and fallopian tube removed. This treatment option gives you the ability to still give birth. However, if you have had menopause or don’t want any more children, both ovaries will be removed.
More advanced stages of ovarian cancer require chemotherapy. This is used when the cancer has spread beyond the ovary. The aim for this treatment is to shrink all the cancer cells and reduce the risk of it returning. You may still have surgery before or after chemotherapy, depending how many cells have been impacted. In severe cases, radiotherapy is used to relieve the symptoms of the disease.
Targeted therapy is a newer form of cancer treatment that uses drugs or other substances to invade cancer cells while doing little to no harm to your normal cells.
Immunotherapy is another type of treatment used to combat cancer. This approach uses a vaccine that allows the immune system to identify cancerous cells and like targeted therapy, attacks the harmful ones. According a recent study, the effectiveness of this treatment proved to be a success.
Dr. Charles Harris is the Chief of Staff at North Shore Medical Center.
