When treating ovarian cancer in the past, doctors almost always did surgery first. But now, many women may want to consider doing chemotherapy first. The benefit of going through chemotherapy first (called “neoadjuvant” chemotherapy) is that it can reduce the cancer so that it is easier to then remove surgically. For some women, chemo first is the better/safer option. This may be true in cases where, for example, a woman has other medical conditions called “comorbidities” that make it difficult to go with surgery first. Or their cancer may have spread to the point where an operation wouldn’t make sense without minimizing the disease first with chemotherapy.
But for other women, surgery first makes more sense. The treatment plan will vary greatly from patient to patient, so it’s important to discuss your wants/needs with your doctor.
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