When women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, it’s understandable that their first reactions may be: What does this all mean? How will I cope? When will I gain control of my life again? Will my disease recur? While there are always unknowns throughout a cancer experience, women can become educated about the treatment options that are available to them – specifically when they are faced with an ovarian cancer recurrence.
The fact is, 85 percent of women with advanced ovarian cancer will face a recurrence after initial treatment. But many times, patients and their doctors don’t spend enough time discussing the possibility of a recurrence, and what options there may be when that time comes. Once a women’s ovarian cancer recurs, it is often considered incurable and for every recurrence, the time a woman spends without her cancer progressing until the next recurrence, gets shorter.
Recent treatment advancements for recurrent ovarian cancer, including the use of maintenance therapy, are giving many women with ovarian cancer more time between recurrences after experiencing a response to chemotherapy, regardless of having BRCA positive or BRCA negative ovarian cancer. Results of clinical studies have demonstrated that these treatments can also be effective and well-tolerated as a treatment option for woman who have experienced multiple recurrences.
In this interview, Dr. Heidi Godoy discusses what it means to have ovarian cancer, the latest in treatment options for recurrent ovarian cancer and how they work. Dr. Godoy also talks about why women with advanced ovarian cancer, no matter how many recurrences they have had, should have a conversation with their physician about their treatment options. Dr. Godoy is joined by Anna, a women living with recurrent ovarian cancer who shares her experience with this disease.
Interview courtesy: TESARO/GSK
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