What should I do if my ovarian cancer has recurred?

  Advanced epithelial ovarian cancer has a high recurrence rate, with five-year survival rates consistently around 30 percent. Even after undergoing surgical treatment and chemotherapy, there will still be tumors coming back again.  The principles of treating recurrent ovarian cancer are 1) to prolong the patient’s survival time and 2) to improve the patient’s survival quality. Both are equally important. The treatment given to patients with recurrent ovarian cancer should consider both of these aspects.  The treatment for recurrent ovarian cancer is still surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The time of tumor recurrence, the site of recurrence, and the general condition of the patient are all factors that determine whether surgery can be performed again. Therefore, surgical treatment should take into account the appellate factors and should be done only if it is expected to help prolong the patient’s life or improve the quality of survival. The risks of reoperation are generally higher than those of the initial surgery. Without the uterus and bilateral ovaries, reoperation is more of a surgical procedure involving the pelvic organs (rectum, bladder or spleen, liver, pancreas, etc.).  Pre-operative evaluation for reoperation includes 1) general physical and mental status score 2) imaging examination 3) serum tumor marker measurement 4) assessment of surgical risk by relevant departments including anesthesia, surgery, blood bank, ICU, and related internal medicine consultation Chemotherapy is also the main treatment for ovarian cancer recurrence and is usually administered to patients who have undergone reoperation or who are not undergoing surgery. The choice of chemotherapy regimen is usually based on the good effect of the first chemotherapy regimen, or the original regimen will be used. Usually, “the first surgery plus 6-8 courses of chemotherapy” will bring the tumor into remission for 3 years or less, some of them will come back only after more than 3 years, some will come back in 1-3 years. In some cases, it takes more than 3 years for the tumor to recur, and in some cases, it recurs within 1-3 years.  This is the worldwide course of recurrence of advanced ovarian cancer, which of course varies greatly among individuals.