Recurrent Stage III Ovarian Cancer in a BRCA2 Carrier Treated Over Many Years
This ovarian cancer diagnosis at a glance
- Stage at diagnosis
- Stage III
- Biomarkers
- BRCA2 mutation
- Treatment
- surgery, chemotherapy and clinical trial
- Outcome
- In Memory
Treatment course, step by step
- She underwent suboptimal debulking surgery.
- She then received 8 cycles of carboplatin, paclitaxel, and cyclophosphamide on a research protocol.
- After peritoneal recurrence, she underwent radical peritonectomy with heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy.
- She later received long-term pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, with carboplatin added for a rising CA-125 level.
What happened, in summary
A 44-year-old woman underwent suboptimal debulking surgery for Stage III high-grade serous ovarian cancer. A BRCA2 mutation was later identified. She received 8 cycles of carboplatin, paclitaxel, and cyclophosphamide through a research protocol.
Within months, rising CA-125 and peritoneal recurrence led to radical peritonectomy followed by heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy with paclitaxel and mitomycin C. Fifteen involved para-aortic lymph nodes were removed. She began monthly pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in 2002, and carboplatin was added for 4 cycles in 2004 when imaging showed a new para-aortic node. Long-term maintenance therapy then continued until late 2009.
She subsequently developed several separate squamous cell cancers in the oral cavity. Those tumors required extensive treatment and progressed despite surgery and additional therapy. In 2011, she died from acute airway obstruction during progression of the oral cancer. Her death was documented in the setting of this second malignancy rather than as a direct ovarian cancer event.
Where this story comes from
This is a lay summary of an account first published by PMC / PubMed Central. Read the original in full
How we source and attribute stories Accuracy and limitations
Collections this story belongs to
- Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer 35 stories
- Carboplatin for Ovarian Cancer 58 stories
These are lay summaries of published cancer stories, for information only. No two cancers behave the same way, and nothing here predicts your own diagnosis or replaces advice from your oncology team. Read the full disclaimer