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Encyclopedia of Cancer pp 1–5Cite as

Ovarian Cancer Chemotherapy

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Definition

Ovarian cancer is the second most common gynecologic malignancy in the USA with around 22,000 women diagnosed per year. As most patients are diagnosed with advanced stage disease, ovarian cancer is also the deadliest gynecologic malignancy with over 15,000 deaths per year. Standard first-line treatment is surgical staging, including debulking of tumor with the goal of removal of all gross disease followed by chemotherapy for patients with advanced stage (6–8 cycles) or high risk early stage disease (3–6 cycles). Improvements in surgical techniques as well as of chemotherapies have led to significant improvement in the 5-year overall survival rate from 35 % in the 1970s to 45 % in the 1990s.

Characteristics

First-Line Chemotherapy

Many classes of chemotherapeutic drugs are active in treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer. The first drugs to show activity were the alkylating agents, such as cyclophosphamide and melphalan. Multiagent therapy with doxorubicin then cisplatinwas...

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References

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See Also

  • (2012) Doxorubicin. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 1159. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_1722

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  • (2012) Melphalan. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 2221. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_3619

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  • (2012) Overall Survival. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 2727. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_6961

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  • (2012) Progression-Free Survival. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 3001. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_6496

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  • (2012) Surgical Debulking. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 3575. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5598

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  • (2012) Taxane. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 3614. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_5689

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  • (2012) Topotecan. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd edn. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p 3730. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_6948

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gynecologic Oncology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Heidi J. Gray

Authors
  1. Heidi J. Gray
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Correspondence to Heidi J. Gray .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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Gray, H.J. (2015). Ovarian Cancer Chemotherapy. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_6972-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_6972-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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