Intraoperative image-guided surgery for ovarian cancer

Approximately two thirds of the ovarian cancer is diagnosed at late stage with peritoneal seeding. The most important prognostic factor is the residual tumor size after surgery. The better survival outcome from minimizing tumor has been established well from several institutional reports, clinical trials for chemotherapy, and meta-analyses. The current standard treatment for such advanced ovarian cancer is to resect all visible and palpable ovarian cancer as much as possible and postoperative chemotherapy. But, even after complete resection of all visible and palpable tumors, a significant percentage of the patients have recurrence usually in the peritoneal cavity in advanced ovarian cancer. Recurrence likely stems from microscopic residual tumor not resected at time of the initial surgery. Currently, advanced technology for intraoperative tumor detection has been reported. Although the current clinical outcome is at an early stage definitively, clinical benefit could be expected from the future in-depth basic research and clinical trials in this area. If all residual microscopic disease, especially chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells, could be removed or treated using new technology, groundbreaking advance for treating ovarian cancer will be realized.