[Management of malignant epithelial tumors of the ovary]

The notoriously poor prognosis of ovarian cancer requires optimal management by a multidisciplinary gynecologic and oncologic surgical team. Ovarian cancers which appear to be of early stage must be accurately staged to be sure that no potential metastatic sites are missed. Such an omission may have grave consequences for disease progression and may reduce the chances of cure in young patients. With advanced-stage ovarian carcinoma, the challenge is to perform a detailed pre-operative staging of the extent of disease to enable neo-adjuvant chemotherapy when the disease is judged to be inoperable and/or the the general condition of the patient is unsuitable for surgery. Only patients who have had complete cytoreductive surgery to all affected areas in the abdomen can hope to have an acceptable 5 year survival rate of 50%.