Radiation for ovarian cancer isn’t as common as surgery and chemotherapy, but there are cases in which radiation might be an additional option.
According to Dr. Chika Nwachukwu, a radiation oncologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center, radiation can be useful in cases where:
- A woman’s ovarian cancer has spread to a specific location that can be targeted by radiation
- An ovarian cancer tumor is causing obstruction somewhere and needs to be shrunken before it can be removed
- A woman is experiencing symptoms from her ovarian cancer
“Radiation therapy for ovarian cancer is generally used for recurrent disease or metastatic disease, where there [is] a localized lesion that we can target,” explains Dr. Nwachukwu. For example, if the ovarian cancer has spread into the bones, radiation can be used to shrink that bony lesion, also called a metastasis. “the goal in that instance is to relieve pain from the bony metastasis,” she says.
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