Gregory P: I found your article both interesting and pertinent to my situation because my surgery (Total abdominal hysterectomy/bilateral salpingoophorectomy with cancer staging (multiple nodes, omentum and appendix removed also)in February showed Stage 1C/Grade I epithelial ovarian cancer. Wouldn't I have had to prearrange for the tissue to be chemosensitivity tested prior to the surgery? I do not think there is anything left of the tissue at this time, execpt the path slides. My prognosis is very good due to early stage, and I have already received 1 treatment; I understand that currently, Taxol/Carbo is the standard first line treatment.
Chemosensitivity testing seems to make so much sense;however,here are my questions:
1. if/when you do advise other drugs in lieu of Taxol/Carbo, do you offer statistics on them? For example, is there an 80-90% cure rate, etc? In one of your message board postings, you mention one woman who would NOT have benefited from Taxol/Carbo, but I don't see stats on other groups.
2. wouldn't I have had to know about the chemosensitivity testing PRIOR to the surgery? If so, why didn't the surgeon suggest that to me?
3. Does chemosensitivity apply to all stages and grades of ovarian cancer? Is it limited to recurrences?
Thanks for the information.
suzanneb