Interventional Treatment of Ovarian Cancer

  Ovarian cancer is the most malignant of all reproductive malignancies. The pathogenetic factors are not fully understood, and studies have shown that they are related to reproductive and genetic factors. Its histologic origin is complex, and the most common primary ovarian cancers are adenocarcinoma, plasmacytic or mucinous cystic adenocarcinoma, and endometrioid carcinoma. Ovarian cancer can occur at any age, but the peak age of incidence is 40 to 65 years.  The principle of treatment for ovarian malignant tumors is generally based on surgery, and supplemented by radiation therapy, chemotherapy and other comprehensive treatments. Surgery is the most important treatment for ovarian malignant tumors, and should be performed first unless the tumor is clinically estimated to be unresectable or contraindicated for surgery. However, since the uterus and ovaries are located deep in the pelvic cavity and cannot be seen or touched directly, many gynecological tumors are already in the middle and late stages when they are discovered, and patients have heavy symptoms such as abdominal masses, abdominal pain, irregular vaginal bleeding, and extensive metastases in the pelvis and systemic organs, so they often lose the opportunity for surgery. Even for the few patients who can be treated surgically, not only do they have to undergo total uterine and adnexal removal and extensive lymph node dissection in the pelvis, but they also need multiple courses of radiotherapy and chemotherapy after surgery. The side effects of these treatments can seriously reduce the quality of life of patients. The most serious thing is that the recurrence and metastasis rate of ovarian cancer after surgery is very high, and most patients basically have no effective treatment means except systemic chemotherapy again.  The development of modern medical technology has broadened the treatment channels for patients with advanced ovarian cancer. The emergence of interventional therapy can not only provide patients with advanced ovarian cancer a chance to regain surgical treatment, but also control the disease and reduce symptoms through interventional treatment methods. Patients treated with arterial embolization chemotherapy and argon helium knife cryoablation system can shrink the tumor and reduce or even disappear ascites. At the same time, because interventional therapy can increase the concentration of drugs inside the cancer focus by directly injecting highly concentrated anti-cancer drugs into the tumor blood supply artery, the concentration of drugs inside the cancer focus is 8.9 times higher than that of systemic intravenous drugs and 8.6 times higher than that of intraperitoneal drugs. Therefore, the intra-arterial drug concentration in the tumor is high, the maintenance time is long, and the systemic toxic side effects are light, and the postoperative nausea and vomiting symptoms are significantly less than those of systemic administration. Intra-arterial chemotherapy via the tumor blood supply artery is conducive to improving the efficacy and shortening the course of treatment.  Interventional embolization can also occlude the tumor blood supplying artery, resulting in necrosis and shrinkage of tumor due to lack of blood supply. The combination of arterial chemotherapy and embolization can make the anti-tumor drugs stay inside the tumor, which causes ischemia and necrosis of the tumor while the chemotherapy drugs continue to act on the tumor cells and can achieve the purpose of killing the tumor to the greatest extent. Another significant advantage of interventional therapy is that the side effects of treatment are small and patients are happy to accept them, which is an important sign of modern medical development that life and quality of life are given equal importance.