Every year, many women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and many of them are already in the advanced stage when discovered. Generally, early detection is still relatively easy to treat, and the cure rate is also relatively high. The common methods are surgery and radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Below, we will introduce the treatment methods and causes of malignant female ovarian cancer.
1、 Can malignant ovarian cancer be cured
Most advanced ovarian cancers are incurable and usually only require chemotherapy and targeted therapy. Chemotherapy can improve the quality of life and prolong the survival period of advanced patients. If patients in this stage receive chemotherapy alone, the overall median survival time is 8-10 months, with a 1-year survival rate of 30-40% and a 2-year survival rate of 10-15%. If patients have EGFR sensitive mutations, approximately 50% of them can achieve a survival time of about 3 years after treatment. The median survival time for extensive stage small cell ovarian cancer is 9-11 months, and the 2-year survival rate after treatment is less than 5%.
2、 Treatment methods for malignant ovarian cancer
1. Treatment principles
The treatment plan for ovarian malignant tumors varies depending on the pathological type, and comprehensive treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy are often used.
2. Surgical treatment
During surgery, detailed exploration should be conducted first, including cytological examination of abdominal flushing fluid or ascites, palpation of the diaphragm, pelvic and abdominal organs, pelvic lymph nodes, and retroperitoneal lymph nodes, in order to accurately stage the tumor. The surgical methods for early patients are divided into comprehensive staged surgery and staged surgery that preserves fertility function. The scope of comprehensive staged surgery includes bilateral adnexectomy, hysterectomy, omentectomy, and pelvic and retroperitoneal lymph node dissection. For late stage patients with extensive implantation and metastasis of tumors in the pelvic cavity, it is recommended to undergo tumor cell reduction surgery as much as possible.
3. Chemotherapy
Due to the early spread of ovarian malignant tumors, especially epithelial cancer, most cases cannot clear the lesion during surgery, and the effectiveness and application of radiotherapy are also limited. Therefore, systemic chemotherapy is an important adjuvant treatment method. Especially for malignant germ cell tumors, standardized chemotherapy can significantly improve patient survival rates. Some advanced patients can experience tumor reduction after chemotherapy, creating favorable conditions for satisfactory tumor reduction during surgery.
4. Radiotherapy
The radiation sensitivity of ovarian malignant tumors varies greatly, with endodermal sinus tumors, immature teratomas, and embryonic cancers being the least sensitive, ovarian epithelial cancer and granulosa cell carcinoma being moderately sensitive, and germ cell tumors being the most sensitive. Postoperative radiation therapy is often used to control these conditions. However, due to the fact that malignant germ cell tumors such as germ cell tumors are mostly in adolescents and have good chemotherapy effects, pelvic radiotherapy has significant side effects and is rarely used for ovarian malignancies.
The above are the treatment methods and subject rates for malignant ovarian cancer. In fact, for advanced ovarian cancer, the cure rate is very low, and only conservative treatment can be carried out. General radiotherapy and chemotherapy are not suitable, and chemotherapy can be applied to prolong the patient's life and alleviate pain. Currently, the survival rate of advanced patients is not very high.
