Treatments for germ cell ovarian cancer
The following are treatment options for germ cell ovarian cancer. Your healthcare team will suggest treatments based on your needs and work with you to develop a treatment plan.
Surgery
Surgery is offered for most germ cell ovarian cancers. It may be the only treatment needed. The types of surgery that may be done are:
- removing the ovary with the cancer in it and the fallopian tube on the same side (called a unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy)
- removing the uterus and cervix (called a total hysterectomy) and both ovaries and both fallopian tubes (called a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy)
- removing as much of the cancer as possible (called surgical debulking) if the cancer has spread outside of the ovaries
During surgery, the surgeon collects samples of abnormal-looking tissue from different parts of the pelvis, abdomen and lymph nodes. They will also rinse the abdomen with salt water (saline) and collect a sample (called pelvic washings). The tissue samples and pelvic washings are analyzed in a lab to find out if cancer has spread. This is called surgical staging.
Find out more about surgery for ovarian cancer.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. Chemotherapy is usually offered to destroy cancer cells left behind after surgery and reduce the risk that the cancer will come back (called adjuvant chemotherapy).
The most common chemotherapy combination used for germ cell ovarian cancer is PEB (or BEP), which is cisplatin, etoposide and bleomycin.
Find out more about chemotherapy for ovarian cancer.
Recurrent or persistent germ cell ovarian cancer
Recurrent ovarian cancer means that the cancer has come back after it has been treated. Persistent ovarian cancer never went away completely after treatment.
Chemotherapy is the main treatment for recurrent or persistent germ cell cancer.
PEB may be tried if you haven't been given this combination before. If you were previously treated with PED, other combinations may be tried including:
- VAC – vincristine, dactinomycin, cyclophosphamide
- VeIP – vinblastine, ifosfamide, cisplatin
Clinical trials
Talk to your doctor about clinical trials open to people with ovarian cancer in Canada. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, find and treat cancer. Find out more about clinical trials. Find out more about clinical trials.
If you can't have or don't want cancer treatment
You may want to consider a type of care to make you feel better without treating the cancer itself. This may be because the cancer treatments don’t work anymore, they’re not likely to improve your condition or they may cause side effects that are hard to cope with. There may also be other reasons why you can’t have or don’t want cancer treatment.
Talk to your healthcare team. They can help you choose care and treatment for advanced cancer.
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