Modern Treatment of Ovarian Cancer in the Community Setting

Melissa Hardesty, MD, a gynecologic oncologist at Alaska Women’s Cancer Care, discusses the modern disease management of patients with ovarian cancer in the community setting.

Addressing toxicity from treatment in the community setting is an ongoing challenge. Using maintenance agents leads to more adverse events (AEs) in women with ovarian cancer. These AEs tend to persist after frontline therapy, and oncologists are tasked with balancing the management of frontline treatment, maintenance treatment, and AEs in their patients while maintaining quality-of-life, says Hardesty.

The therapeutics strategies that currently exist for women with ovarian cancer have extended the overall survival in the population, explains Hardesty. But many patients with ovarian cancer have a recurrence. The task for the treating oncologist then becomes the balancing of quality-of-life when patients are off therapy or in-between treatments.

The other challenge with community oncology, according to Hardesty, is providing care to women who live in rural settings.