Ovarian cancer recurrence time

If ovarian cancer is not treated well, it will recur again after being cured, and each recurrence will aggravate the symptoms of the disease, eventually leading to the spread of cancer cells in the patient. If this is the case, it will cause harm to the body or even endanger life. Therefore, you should pay special attention and try to take surgical treatment to improve the condition in the early stages.

Treatment of Benign Tumors

Once an ovarian tumor is diagnosed, surgical treatment should be performed as soon as possible. The scope of the surgery depends on the patient's age, whether or not she has fertility requirements, and the condition of both ovaries. For patients of childbearing age with unilateral tumors, ovarian tumor resection should be performed whenever possible. Women before and after menopause generally undergo total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. During the operation, tumor rupture should be avoided as much as possible, the nature of the tumor should be carefully distinguished, and the possibility of malignancy should be excluded. If necessary, frozen sections should be sent for pathological examination. Surgery can be done open or laparoscopically. Laparoscopic surgery is currently the main method for treating benign tumors. For huge tumors, laparotomy is more appropriate if it is difficult to remove the tumor under laparoscopy.

Treatment of ovarian cancer

The treatment is mainly surgical, supplemented by chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, etc.

1. Surgical treatment Surgery is not only the most effective treatment, but also a necessary means to determine the diagnosis and clarify the staging. Once ovarian malignancy is suspected, surgery should be performed as soon as possible. For early-stage cancer, staging surgery is done, which includes removing the tumor and determining the stage. In principle, the scope of surgery includes total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, omentectomy, and pelvic and abdominal aortic lymph node clearance. For advanced cancer, tumor cytoreductive surgery is performed to remove the primary tumor and all metastatic lesions as much as possible to reduce the number of tumor cells to a minimum. For young people who want to have children, those who meet the requirements can undergo conservative surgery to preserve their fertility.

For patients with epithelial cancer, those who meet the following conditions may consider preserving fertility: ① Stage Ia; ② Well-differentiated cells; ③ Borderline or low-grade malignant tumors; ④ No tumor was found on the contralateral ovary during surgery; ⑤ Conditions for close follow-up after surgery. However, for ovarian germ cell tumors, the indications for preserving fertility can be relaxed. Even if the period is not early, if the uterus and the contralateral ovary are normal, you can consider preserving your fertility. This type of surgery requires full communication between the doctor and the patient.

If the first surgery is incomplete, with only a biopsy or partial resection, or if the tumor is in an advanced stage and surgery cannot achieve satisfactory tumor cell reduction, surgery should be performed after 1 to 3 courses of chemotherapy. The prognosis is significantly improved if the residual tumor is <2cm, especially <1cm. Whether to undergo another surgery for recurrent cancer is still controversial and should be considered comprehensively based on the patient's specific circumstances.