[Ovarian cancer: role of medical treatment]

The objective of medical treatment is to define the most active regimen and to combine them with optimal efficiency in the overall management of ovarian cancer patients, according to the results of surgical examination and the radiotherapeutic possibilities. The chemotherapy of common epithelial tumours is basically composed of alkylating agent, adriamycin, cis-platinum and hexamethylmelamine. The combination of these drugs leads to a high rate of surgically controlled tumor regressions and more complete responses, the only treatment which significantly increases survival. Results are less efficient for relapses or after failure of first line chemotherapy. The adjuvant chemotherapy of malignant germ cell tumours is used more and more often. The present indications of hormonotherapy are limited. Immunostimulant agents are being studied by several assays and preliminary results are interesting.