Ovarian cancer

Abstract

Ovarian cancer is considered the fifth most common cause of cancer-related death among women in North America. In China, the incidence remains low compared to North America, Western Europe, and Japan, but has increased in recent years possibly due to improvement in screening and diagnostic approaches and changes in environmental factors and lifestyle habits. Ovarian cancer is usually asymptomatic in the early stages, and most patients are diagnosed with advanced disease. Current therapeutic approaches, including cytoreductive surgery and chemotherapy, have improved survival rates, but relapses are frequent, and a cure remains rare for advanced disease. In Chinese oncology practice, TCM has been proved a useful complementary approach to standard treatments, as well as for cancers where chemotherapy failed. This chapter discusses general TCM approaches for ovarian cancer as it is practiced in many Chinese Oncology Canters in concert with surgical and conventional chemotherapy treatment. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.