Local Versus Systemic Ovarian Cancer Treatment
Ovarian cancer treatment consists of either local therapy or systemic therapy.
Local Therapy
Surgery or radiation therapy is local ovarian cancer treatment. These types of treatments remove or destroy cancer in the ovaries. When ovarian cancer has spread to other parts of the body, local therapy may be used to control the disease in those specific areas.
Systemic Therapy
Chemotherapy is a type of systemic ovarian cancer treatment. In chemotherapy, medicine enters the bloodstream and destroys or controls cancer throughout the body.
Possible Side Effects of Ovarian Cancer Treatment
Because ovarian cancer treatment often damages healthy cells and tissues, side effects are common. Side effects depend mainly on the type and extent of the treatment. They may not be the same for each woman, and they may change from one treatment session to the next.
Before treatment begins, your ovarian cancer healthcare team will explain possible side effects and suggest ways to help you manage them. Also, at any stage of the disease, supportive care is available to control
ovarian cancer pain and other symptoms, to relieve the side effects of ovarian cancer treatment, and to ease emotional concerns.
Ovarian Cancer Treatment: Clinical Trials
Before starting ovarian cancer treatment, patients may want to think about taking part in an ovarian cancer clinical trial. A clinical trial is an ovarian cancer research study meant to help improve current treatments or to obtain information on new treatments for patients with ovarian cancer. When clinical trials show that a new ovarian cancer treatment is better than the standard treatment, the new treatment may become the standard one.
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