FAQ Chemotherapy

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There are many new approaches to treating ovarian cancer, such as new drugs and combinations of drugs.
Scientists and doctors meet frequently at medical conferences all over the world to share information and discuss new approaches to treatment.

Whether or not chemotherapy will cure your cancer depends on many factors such as:

stage and grade of your cancer
outcome of your surgery – if the surgeon was able to remove all of the visible tumour
age
overall health

Chemotherapy can stop cancer from spreading and dramatically slow the growth of cancer cells. This can help put cancer into remission enabling you to prolong your life.
Chemo can also relieve the symptoms caused by your cancer, which can improve your overall quality of life.

Chemotherapy can prevent the cancer from recurring.
Cancer cells are very small and small clumps of cells can spread to other parts of the body.
Chemotherapy helps to kill the nearly invisible cancer cells that cannot be removed by surgery.

No one can predict what will happen in the future.
You may respond positively to chemotherapy and go on to lead a completely normal life.
Chemotherapy may extend your life and could potentially enable you to receive new treatments that may result in a cure.
Increasingly ovarian cancer is being regarded as a chronic disease; it may recur but repeated cycles of chemotherapy can put the disease back into remission and you can return to a normal quality of life.

Every individual responds differently to treatment.
There is a tumour marker called CA 125 that is sensitive to ovarian cancer. A downward trend in CA 125 indicates a positive response to chemo (i.e. as the numbers decrease, your chemotherapy is working).