Alicante Hospital announces innovative treatment for Ovarian Cancer

A new treatment announced by Alicante Hospital should increase the chances of survival in women with ovarian cancer.

The new technique involves performing surgery to remove the tumour and then whilst still in surgery, treating the area with high-temperature chemotherapy to destroy any cancer cells that are left over after the operation.

The use of Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) is said to have produced good results. Until recently, patients could only be offered palliative treatment, such as peritoneal carcinomatosis, which is used when cancer has spread to other organs.

Doctor Josefina Marcos of the General Hospital of Alicante said: “In ovarian cancer, it is not possible to do a screening and that means by the time the patient is experiencing symptoms the tumour is already at an advanced stage.”

The estimated risk of developing ovarian cancer is one in 130 women and the highest incidence is between 50 and 75 years of age. Between 70 and 80 per cent of cases are diagnosed in an advanced stage (stages III and IV).

Patients will be evaluated to see if they will benefit from the new technique, or another one called PIPAC where chemotherapy is applied by aerosol.

The head of Oncology at the San Juan hospital, Nieves Diaz said: “We know that patients with mutations in some genes may have greater benefit from specific types of targeted therapy, a treatment that identifies and fights cancer cells without affecting the normal cells around them.”