Fallopian Tube Cancer Treatment

Fallopian tube cancer treatment usually includes surgery, which is most successful when done by a specialist with a great deal of experience in treating this rare cancer.

MD Anderson surgeons are among the most skilled and recognized in the world. They use the least invasive and most advanced techniques for their patients.

Our fallopian tube cancer treatments

If you are diagnosed with fallopian tube cancer, your care team will discuss the best options to treat it. This depends on several things, including the size, location and stage of the tumor, your age, overall health and desire to have children. 

One or more of the following therapies may be used to treat fallopian tube cancer or help relieve symptoms.

Surgery

Surgery, followed by chemotherapy, is the main treatment for fallopian tube cancer. The type of surgery depends on the stage of the tumor. Surgery to treat the cancer may be done during the same operation as the biopsy.

The fallopian tubes, ovaries, uterus and cervix, as well as nearby lymph nodes, usually are removed. Sometimes the surgery can be minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells, control their growth or relieve disease-related symptoms. Chemotherapy may involve a single drug or a combination of two or more drugs, depending on the type of cancer and how fast it is growing. For fallopian tube cancer, chemotherapy usually is given after surgery.

MD Anderson offers the most up-to-date and advanced chemotherapy options.

Learn more about chemotherapy.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy uses powerful, focused beams of energy to kill cancer cells. There are several different radiation therapy techniques. Doctors can use these to accurately target a tumor while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.

Radiation therapy usually is not used to treat fallopian tube cancer. But it may be used to help you feel better if the cancer cannot be treated. Sometimes it is given after surgery and chemotherapy.

Learn more about radiation therapy.

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy drugs are designed to stop or slow the growth or spread of cancer. This happens on a cellular level. Cancer cells need specific molecules (often in the form of proteins) to survive, multiply and spread. These molecules are usually made by the genes that cause cancer, as well as the cells themselves. Targeted therapies are designed to interfere with, or target, these molecules or the cancer-causing genes that create them.

MD Anderson is among just a few cancer centers in the nation that are able to offer targeted therapy for some types of fallopian tube cancer.

Learn more about targeted therapy.

Immunotherapy

The immune system finds and defends the body from infection and disease. Cancer is a complex disease that can evade and outsmart the immune system. Immunotherapy improves the immune system’s ability to eliminate cancer. Immune checkpoint inhibitors may be used in the treatment of fallopian tube cancer.

Learn more about immunotherapy