Ovarian Cancer 

Ovarian Cancer: A Silent Disease

Often, ovarian cancer is not discovered until it has reached an advanced stage, requiring the unique and aggressive treatment options offered at Geisinger.

Hard-Hitting Treatment

Late-stage ovarian cancer typically spreads to the abdomen, resulting in the formation of fluid-filled tumors. Treating the advanced-stage disease contained in the abdomen offers women a better likelihood of survival. The gold standard of care for ovarian cancer over the years has been a procedure called “debulking surgery,” in which a surgeon removes as much of the ovarian tumor and the surrounding fluid-filled tumors as pssible. The surgery is typically followed by chemotherapy.

Peritoneal Perfusion

Geisinger recognizes the important role chemotherapy plays in treating ovarian cancer and is the only facility in the region to offer a procedure called peritoneal perfusion, which floods the abdominal cavity with chemotherapy immediately following debulking surgery. Peritoneal perfusion, or intraoperative chemotherapy, offers the following: 

• No chemotherapy-associated pain because the chemotherapy is delivered while the patient is under general anesthesia
• Higher success rate in destroying any remaining microscopic tumors because the organs are literally bathed in preheated chemotherapy drugs for 60 to 90 minutes; both heat and the drug kill the remaining cancer
• Ability to use higher dose and more potent chemotherapy because it isn’t being circulated through the body
• Fewer side effects for the patient 

Peritoneal perfusion is performed in the hospital and requires the patient to stay for several days. Before leaving the hospital, the patient will undergo a second chemotherapy treatment during which the drug is delivered to the abdomen by a previously inserted catheter. The patient can recover at home for four weeks before beginning a regimen of chemotherapy in an outpatient setting.

Because ovarian cancer typically recurs, using this aggressive approach aims to provide longer-term survival, and possibly even a cure.

Team Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment

Patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer should contact Geisinger’s Surgical Oncology Department for evaluation by a multidisciplinary team of doctors who collaborate to determine if peritoneal profusion is an option, and to establish a life-saving treatment plan.