Ovarian cancer -- surgery? Chemo? Radiation?

Question

Hearing conflicting treatments for ovarian cancer -- A 24 year old co-worker has announced that she was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer and is receiving radiation treatment three times a week. I thought that radiation therapy is rarely used as treatment these days since it is such an aggressive type of cancer and that surgery and/or chemotherapy are the best options. I have friends who have ovarian cancer and never receive just radiation, especially three times a week (the girl at work goes at 6:30 AM and goes straight ot the office). I would hate to think that she is making up the entire story so I'm just curious if this is accurate.

Thanks for the 2st two answers....responder #1 - you do mention that it is rarely used here in the US, but say it was, do you expect the girl to show up at work on the same day? Responder #2 -- no, she is single, young and a pathological liar. I'm just curious out if radiation is used because that is what she claims is the reason for being late for work everyday; she doesn't look sick, not nauseous (she eats like a pig), and now playing on people's sympathy by making up such a horrible lie by claiming she has ovarian cancer...not the first lie we've caught her in but this is the one that takes the cake!

Answer 1

External Beam Radiation Therapy

External beam radiation therapy involves a series of daily outpatient treatments to accurately deliver radiation to the cancer. Each treatment is painless and is similar to getting an X-ray. They are often given in a series of daily sessions, each taking less than half an hour, Monday through Friday, for five to six weeks. In some cases, you may receive more than one treatment in a day, often several hours apart.

3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) combines multiple radiation treatment fields to deliver precise doses of radiation to the affected area. Tailoring each of the radiation beams to focus on the tumor delivers a high dose of radiation to the tumor and avoids nearby healthy tissue.

Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is the most recent advance in the delivery of radiation. IMRT improves on 3D-CRT by modifying the intensity of the radiation within each of the radiation beams. This allows more precise adjustment of radiation doses to the tissues within the target area.
However, radiation therapy is rarely used in this country as the main treatment for ovarian cancer.

Radiation therapy may cause side effects. The skin in the area treated may look and feel sunburned. The skin returns to normal within 6 to 12 months. Many women also feel tiredness, nausea or diarrhea

Answer 2

The kind of treatment for Ovarian Cancer depends on two factors:
a) Disease stage
b) Histological type. (that is, kind of cells the tumor is made of)

Basically the main treatment nowadays is still surgery. There are few patients that won't have surgery either before or after radiation an chemo.
HOWEVER: some kinds of tumors (Germinal cells tumors) happen in women between 15 and 30 years of age, and those are precisely the kinds of tumor that are more likely to respond to chemo and/or radiation instead of surgery.
One kind of tumor in particular, "Disgerminoma" is exquisitely responsive to radiant treatment, to the point it can virtually dissapear with radiation and not have surgery.
Ask her what kind of tumor she has, that might give you a clue. It is extremely rare, however, that radiation treatment won't have any ill effects on her.
Anyway, she might be taking a friend to treatment, or a family member, or she could have other diseases she prefers no to tell about. So maybe it would be wise to be cautious

Answer 3

The story seems fishy to me.
The so called time of radiation seems strange
the frequency seems strange
since the ovaries are being killed by the radiatiobn, I would think that surgery should be first option to make sure of irradication.

Is she married and just sneaks off to see her lover and uses the radiation excuse to come into work late?

Answer 4

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