Ovarian cancer is more likely to occur before and after menopause

Many women will turn pale at the mention of ovarian cancer. Indeed, ovarian cancer is a common gynecological malignancy with a high incidence. At present, the incidence of ovarian cancer accounts for 23% to 27% of gynecological malignancies, becoming the fifth most common cancer in the world, and the mortality rate ranks first among gynecological tumors. It can occur in women of any age, but most of them occur before and after menopause, and about half of them occur after the age of 65.

Because the ovaries are located deep in the pelvic cavity, patients may not have any symptoms in the early stages of cancer, so they are not noticed and are not easy to take the initiative to undergo examinations. Often, when the cancer is discovered, it is already in the late stage and is quite difficult to treat. Therefore, the 5-year survival rate of ovarian cancer patients is only 30% to 50%. If women over 30 years old, especially those before and after menopause, can undergo regular gynecological and pelvic ultrasound examinations, they can achieve early detection, early diagnosis, and timely and reasonable treatment, and the 5-year survival rate of ovarian cancer can reach more than 90%.

The main treatment for ovarian cancer is surgical resection. Postoperative chemotherapy is also important. Immunotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy, and traditional Chinese medicine should also be used. The effectiveness of chemotherapy and the length of survival of patients depend on whether the tumor is completely removed. Therefore, surgery should remove the tumor lesions to the maximum extent. Postoperative chemotherapy must be used for those tiny tumors and residual tumor cells that cannot be seen by the naked eye.

At present, chemotherapy for ovarian cancer mostly adopts the method of early, sufficient, and multiple courses after surgery, which is the best choice to improve the cure rate and prolong survival time. Since the metastasis and spread of ovarian cancer is mainly extensive implantation in the pelvic cavity, in order to expose the tumor to more drugs, chemotherapy for ovarian cancer often adopts the method of intraperitoneal administration. At present, "Taxol + Platinum" is used as the standard first-line chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. Radiotherapy is an adjuvant therapy for ovarian cancer, mainly used for some patients who are ineffective with chemotherapy. Traditional Chinese medicine has a good effect on improving the patient's body immunity. Although immunotherapy and gene therapy have certain therapeutic effects, they have not yet been widely used in clinical practice.