Treatment of Recurrent Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Recurrent ovarian cancer (ROC) treatment is drawing attention and treatment strategies appear to be changing. Although an average response rate of 70% was achieved in initial treatment through aggressive operations leading to optimal resection followed by chemotherapy, most patients in advanced disease stages recurred within 2 years. Multiple-line clinical trials, including newly proposed targeted therapies, are ongoing and are steadily proving positive survival outcomes. Thus, the role of secondary cytoreductive surgery is being reassessed accordingly. The goal of treatment in ROC is prolonged survival without decreasing quality of life. In the near future, there may be a chance to expect the treatment leading to complete cure in ROC. However, the financial burden of continually increasing prices suffers patients with the expectancy of life prolongation. Besides costs, treatment choices of ROC should consider complex factors such as platinum agent efficacy, germline mutation, drug toxicities, disease spread, and treatment convenience. Finally, treatment of recurrence should be individually tailored to each patient with the intention of securing a high quality of life.