Medical treatment uses drugs, hormones and other agents to kill cancer cells.
Many different types of drugs are used to treat ovarian, fallopian tube and peritoneal cancers. Your cancer care team will determine the best drugs and combinations of drugs for you based on several factors, such as your cancer’s type, stage and grade, whether it has certain biomarkers, or a genetic variant such as BRCA.
Chemotherapy for ovarian cancer
After surgery, the second line of attack against ovarian cancer is typically chemotherapy treatment. Chemotherapy drugs attack rapidly growing cells (like cancer cells) in the body. Several chemotherapy drugs are available to treat ovarian, fallopian tube and peritoneal cancers. These drugs are typically delivered through an intravenous (IV) infusion
Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion (HIPEC)
This advanced type of chemotherapy treatment delivers high-dose chemotherapy directly to the abdomen at the time of cytoreductive or debulking surgery. HIPEC can provide effective treatment for patients whose cancer has spread in the abdomen.
Immediately after surgery, a high-dose chemotherapy solution that’s been heated to fever range (107.6F) is delivered into the abdominal cavity, bathing all the organs and tissues.
Heating the chemotherapy makes the drugs more effective, and higher doses of the drugs can be used because they remain in the abdominal cavity rather than circulate through your bloodstream.
Targeted therapy for ovarian cancer
Targeted therapies are drugs that find and attack cancer cells by targeting a biomarker, a specific feature of the cancer cell, such as a protein or mutation that isn’t found in normal, healthy cells. Some of these drugs are in the form of a pill, taken orally; others are delivered by intravenous (IV) infusion.
One newer type of targeted therapy, called a PARP inhibitor, works to block the PARP enzyme which the cancer cells need to repair themselves and continue growing. By blocking this, the cancer cells die. PARP inhibitors are especially effective in cancers with other defects, such as BRCA mutations.
Other targeted drugs used for ovarian cancer work to inhibit cancer cells’ ability to grow new blood vessels to feed the tumor, or the drugs interrupt the signals that tell cancer cells to grow and multiply.
Hormone therapy for ovarian cancer
Some ovarian cancers rely on female hormones — estrogen and progesterone — to grow. Drugs that block the production or the activity of hormones can help lower the levels of these hormones in the body and slow cancer growth.
Hormone therapy is usually used only in women whose cancer has recurred, not for initial treatment.