Ovarian cancer.: Seven years experience in a district general hospital

Summary

The experience of cancer of the ovary in a district general hospital group over a seven year period was surveyed. Documentation of the laparotomy findings was often inadequate. Radical debulking surgery was not generally practised; cisplatin was the most frequently used chemo-therapeutic agent. Second look laparotomy was not routine. Regrettably the autopsy rate was negligible. The overall five year survival rate was 33 per cent; for stages 1 and 2 it was 63 per cent, and for stages 3 and 4, it was 8 per cent. Ovarian cancer remains a 'silent killer'.