Ovarian cancer

Even though cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy results in increased clinical and surgical complete remission rates and improved median survival compared with single-agent alkylating agent chemotherapy, the 5 year survival rates for stages III and IV ovarian cancer have only improved to 25-30%. New methods being evaluated to improve response rates, median survival, and 5 year survival rates include the use of high-dose carboplatin, dose intensity using platinum compounds, intraperitoneal chemotherapy, concomitant intravenous and intraperitoneal chemotherapy, and the recent discovery of new active agents against epithelial ovarian cancer--Taxol, and Ifosfamide plus mesna.