What is Chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy is the use of chemical drugs to kill the fast growing cancer cells.
For ovarian cancer the standard drugs used on initial diagnosis depends on stage at diagnosis. Below are the recommended chemotherapy treatments as given in the NCCN guidelines.
Stage I
Carboplatin with paclitaxel or docetaxel - IV ( intravenous)
Stage II, III, IV
Paclitaxel with cisplatin IP ( intraperitoneal injection)
Paclitaxel or docetaxel with Carboplatin - IV
Dose Dense Paclitaxel with Carboplatin - IV
The chemotherapy is given in cycles every 14, 21 or 28 days. I wrote about how different chemotherapy drugs work in this blog post. (http://womenofteal.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-do-those-ovarian-cancer-treatments.html)
IP, intraperitoneal chemotherapy allows the drugs to be injected into the peritoneal cavity . Studies have shown that treatment with IP / IV increase increases survival by 16 months over IV treatment alone.
Chemotherapy Drugs for Recurrences:
When a women's cancer recurs she may be offered the same chemotherapy drugs or one of these approved drugs as found on the NCI website.
- Carboplatin
- Clafen (Cyclophosphamide)
- Cisplatin
- Cyclophosphamide
- Cytoxan (Cyclophosphamide)
- Doxorubicin Hydrochloride
- Dox-SL (Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome)
- DOXIL (Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome)
- Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome
- Evacet (Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome)
- Gemcitabine Hydrochloride
- Gemzar (Gemcitabine Hydrochloride)
- Hycamtin (Topotecan Hydrochloride)
- LipoDox (Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome)
- Neosar (Cyclophosphamide)
- Paclitaxel
- Paraplat (Carboplatin)
- Paraplatin (Carboplatin)
- Platinol (Cisplatin)
- Platinol-AQ (Cisplatin)
- Taxol (Paclitaxel)
- Thiotepa
- Topotecan Hydrochloride
Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!
Source:
NCCN guidelines
http://www.nccn.org/patients/guidelines/ovarian/index.html#42
JCO:
http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/early/2015/08/03/JCO.2015.61.4776.abstract
