Ovarian Cancer Treatment

When you receive ovarian cancer treatment at MD Anderson, a multidisciplinary team of some of the nation’s foremost experts customizes your care. This team of specialists communicates and collaborates at every step. They customize your ovarian cancer treatment to be sure you receive the highest chance for successful treatment with the least impact on your body.

Our physicians have extensive experience in treating every type of ovarian cancer, including recurring and rare ovarian cancers. We offer the latest, most advanced therapies, including surgery, chemotherapy, hormonal therapies, targeted therapies and immunotherapies.

Surgery usually is the first step in treating ovarian cancer. It is crucial that your surgeon be experienced in this delicate procedure. Studies have shown that patients with ovarian cancer have better outcomes and better chances for survival when the largest amount possible of the tumor is removed.

The gynecologic oncology surgeons at MD Anderson are some of the most experienced in the nation. This gives them a level of expertise that is available at few other cancer centers.

Pioneering research

Our experts are constantly researching newer and more advanced ovarian cancer treatment, including working to understand it on the molecular and genetic level. In some cases, we can offer gene therapy and targeted therapies that are available at only a few places in the nation.

We are proud to house a prestigious federally-funded Ovarian Cancer SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence) program. This means we can offer a wide variety of clinical trials for new therapies.

Ovarian cancer treatments

If you are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, your doctor will discuss the best options to treat it. This depends on several factors, including:

• The exact type of ovarian cancer
• The stage of the cancer
• The size of the tumor after surgery (debulking)
• Your desire to have children
• Your age and overall health

Surgery, followed by chemotherapy, is a common treatment for ovarian cancer. One or more of the following therapies may be recommended to treat ovarian cancer or help relieve symptoms.

Ovarian cancer surgery

Surgery is the main treatment for ovarian cancer. Often, ovarian cancer surgery is done to remove or biopsy a mass to find out if it is cancer. Once cancer is confirmed, the surgeon stages the cancer based on how far it has spread from the ovaries. If the disease seems to be limited to one or both ovaries, the surgeon may immediately remove the ovarian cancer and will biopsy the pelvis and abdomen to find out if the cancer has spread.

It is often obvious during the surgery whether ovarian cancer has spread; if it has, the surgeon will remove as much of the tumor as possible. This may help other treatments work better. This is called debulking.

The ovaries, uterus, cervix, fallopian tubes and omentum (fatty tissue around these organs), and any other visible tumors in the pelvic and abdominal areas may be removed during debulking. The spleen, lymph nodes, liver or intestines also may be removed partially or completely. Sometimes debulking is not possible because the patient is not healthy enough or the tumor may be attached to other organs. In these cases, any tumor left will be treated with chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy for ovarian cancer

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.

You may need chemotherapy after surgery to destroy ovarian cancer cells that are still in the body.

Learn more about chemotherapy.

Intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IP therapy) for ovarian cancer is a way to give chemotherapy drugs. It may be used if a small amount of tumor is left after debulking. Sometimes IP chemotherapy works better than regular chemotherapy. In IP treatment, concentrated chemotherapy is put into the abdominal cavity through a catheter (tiny tube) or implanted port. This allows it to come into contact with the cancer and the area of the body where the cancer is likely to spread. The drugs also get into the blood and travel through the body.

Radiation for ovarian cancer

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.

Although radiation therapy rarely is used to treat ovarian cancer, it may help destroy any cancer cells that are left in the pelvic area.

Learn more about radiation therapy.

Ovarian cancer 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 ovarian 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. There are many different types of immunotherapy and some are available only in clinical trials.

Learn more about immunotherapy

Our ovarian cancer clinical trials

MD Anderson leads the nation in innovative research into the causes, prevention, detection and treatment of ovarian cancer. In fact, we are one of the few cancer centers in the nation to house a prestigious federally-funded Ovarian Cancer SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence) program. This means we can offer a variety of clinical trials of new treatments for ovarian cancer.

Learn more about clinical trials.