Cardiovascular

What Is Ovarian Cancer? What Causes Ovarian Cancer?

womb or the upper abdomen. *Stage 4 - the cancer has spread beyond the abdomen to other parts of the body, including such organs as the lungs or the liver. If cancer is just found on the surface of the liver, but not inside it, it is still stage 3. What is the treatment for ovarian cancer? Treatment for ovarian cancer consists of surgery, chemotherapy, a combination of surgery with chemotherapy, and sometimes radiotherapy. The kind of treatment depends on many factors, including the type of ovarian cancer, its stage and grade, as well as the general health of the patient. Some studies have indicated that specialized hospitals tend to have better survival rates for ovarian cancer patients, compared to general hospitals. Dutch ovarian cancer patients who were treated at a semispecialized or specialized hospital survived longer than those treated at a general hospital, reported researchers at the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands. Surgery The surgical removal of the cancer is performed in the vast majority of ovarian cancer cases, and is often the first treatment the patient will undergo. Unless the ovarian cancer is very low grade, the patient will require an extensive operation that includes the removal of both ovaries, the fallopian tubes, the uterus, nearby lymph nodes, and the omentum (a fold of fatty abdominal tissue). Cancer often spreads into the omentum. In most cases the operation will be carried out by a gynecologic oncologist surgeon - a specialist in surgery for women with cancer of the reproductive organs. This operation, sometimes referred to as a total hysterectomy, will mean that the woman will begin her menopause immediately. Recent research by Canadian scientists found that premature removal of the ovaries increases the risk of lung cancer. If the cancer is confined to just one of the ovaries the surgeon may just remove the affected ovary and the adjoining fallopian tube. The woman will have a chance of being able to conceive. If both ovaries are removed it will not be possible to conceive. Surgery for ovarian cancer will require a hospital stay of up to two weeks, plus a recovery period of at least six weeks when the patient gets back home. Chemotherapy Chemotherapy is the use of chemicals (medication) to treat any disease - more specifically in this text, it refers to the destruction of cancer cells. Cytotoxic medication prevents cancer cells from dividing and growing. When health care professionals talk about chemotherapy today, they generally tend to refer more to cytotoxic medication than others. Chemotherapy for ovarian cancer, as well as most other cancers, is used to target cancer cells that surgery cannot or did not remove. Patients will typically receive a combination of carboplatin (Paraplatin) and paclitaxel (Taxol) intravenously (injected into the bloodstream). As it is injected into the bloodstream it can target cancer cells in the reproductive system, as well as any cancer cells that may have reached elsewhere in the body. Treatment usually involves 6 to 12 chemotherapy sessions which will be given three to four weeks apart so that the body has time to recover. One session usually consists of a 3-hour gradual injection of the medicine into the body; sometimes it may be extended to 24 hours. Extended injections require an overnight stay in hospital. Compounds in cranberries may help improve the effectiveness of platinum drugs that are used in chemotherapy to fight ovarian cancer, scientists at Rutgers University found. Monitoring response to chemotherapy Tests will be carried out to determine how well the chemotherapy is working. This will include blood tests to see if levels of CA125 have dropped, and imaging scans to see if tumors have shrunk. Sometimes the surgeon may want to have another look inside. The patient will be in remission if all tests are clear of cancer. In remission means the cancer is under control. If cancer is still present after chemotherapy treatment doctors will switch to other treatments. Patients who did not respond well to a specific type of chemotherapy treatment are unlikely to respond well if the same treatment is done again. This may involve another type of chemotherapy, such as intraperitoneal chemotherapy, in which the medication is aimed at the stomach, or radiotherapy. Researchers in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center reported that the addition of a chemotherapeutic drug for leukemia - dasatinib (Sprycel) - to a standard regimen of two other chemotherapy drugs appears to enhance the response of certain ovarian cancers to treatment, according to a pre-clinical study. Study leader, Deanna Teoh, M.D. said "These findings indicate that we may be able to direct the use of a targeted therapy like dasatinib based on gene expression pathways in select ovarian cancers." Side effects of chemotherapy Chemotherapy targets rapidly dividing cells. Unfortunately, healthy rapidly dividing cells, such as red and white blood cells and hair follicles may also be affected. The severity and types of side effects depend on the type of medication, number of treatments, and some aspects of the patient and their general health. This may result in the following side effects: *Nausea, vomiting - medication for this may be given intravenously during chemotherapy sessions. *Diarrhea. *Hair loss. *Loss of appetite. *Mouth sores. *Anemia. *Infections because the white blood cell count is low (leucopenia). In the vast majority of cases the damaged healthy cells repair themselves rapidly after treatment is over and the side-effects will soon disappear. Radiotherapy Radiation is not the mainstay of ovarian cancer treatment - it is not generally considered effective for ovarian cancer. It may be used if there are small traces of cancer in the reproductive system, or to treat the symptoms of advanced cancer. External radiotherapy may be used to clear traces of cancer left after chemotherapy, while internal radiotherapy may be used for advanced cancer. Radiotherapy may cause the following symptoms; some symptoms may not appear until a long time after treatment is over: *Bladder infections *Diarrhea *Constipation *Irritation, darkening of your skin that the radiation beams hit *Nausea *Frequent urination *Abdominal pain Diptheria toxin-enconding DNA Scientists at Lankenau Institute for Medical Research found that nanoparticle delivery of diphtheria toxin-encoding DNA selectively expressed in ovarian cancer cells reduced the burden of ovarian tumors in mice. Lead researcher, Janet Sawicki, Ph.D said "We now have a potential new therapy for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer that has promise for targeting tumor cells and leaving healthy cells healthy.". Written by Christian Nordqvist Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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