Making an Initial Plan Should Be About Treatment — But Also Your Needs, Goals & Fears
SHARE

Medically Reviewed
SurvivorNet Fact Checking and Medical Review Standards:  The SurvivorNet News Team creates high quality medical information that complies with our industry leading standards for factual accuracy and sourcing from leading experts at academic medical institutions. Every news article is thoroughly fact-checked by our physician collaborators. We vet each piece of work for factual integrity, impartiality, and clearly label any professional conflicts.All SurvivorNet articles adhere to the following standards:
  1. All studies and research papers cited are from reputable academic medical institutions or peer-reviewed journals.
  2. When we use data, statistics, or quotes these references link to the original source.
  3. All content related to new treatments, drugs, procedures, and so on must clearly describe availability, side effects, treatment target (such as triple negative breast cancer)
  4. All medical information on SurvivorNet is sourced from respected medical professionals with verified medical credentials and links are provided to these sources.
  5. We strive to give the reader relevant background information and include, clearly-sourced contextual health information in all articles
6) Readers are clearly alerted to any conflicts of interest from a medical source or the authors of a cited study.
/ Updated October 6th, 2023

Making an Initial Plan Should Be About Treatment — But Also Your Needs, Goals & Fears

Medically Reviewed: Dr. Whitfield Growdon Written by Dr. Elizabeth Jewell
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
×

Your first meeting with your doctor to discuss treatment plans should focus on your disease, but also your needs, goals, and fears.

"Everyone has a story before they come into your office," observes Dr. Elizabeth Jewell, attending surgeon in the Division of GYN-Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital. "When they’ve told me their story, in some way they've also expressed to me what's most important to them, what they value. And then, together we start on their medical journey, their treatment plan." In this way, your doctor can hear what your priorities are, which will help them create the type of plan that is specific to who you are.

Read More
Oncologists who collaborated with SurvivorNet to create these resources say that making your own needs and goals clear from the onset is an important part of figuring out a treatment plan. Finding a doctor who you can trust, who pays attention to your personal concerns when it comes to treatment is incredibly important. You want to make sure you feel comfortable discussing things like treatment options, risks, side effects, and even cost.

For ovarian cancer, your treatment plan might include other, more specific questions and options: should you get genetic testing (for example, if you have a BRCA mutationa genetic mutation that can predispose you to ovarian or breast canceryou should most likely have a genetic test); has your cancer spread beyond your ovaries; what is the cancer stage that you are at, and what does that mean; will you be able to have children after your treatment; and, if you are looking at surgery and are concerned about costs and insurance coverage, who is the best person to speak to about this concern?

Very often, surgery is recommended as the first, upfront treatment for ovarian cancer, where a doctor can go in and remove "all the cancer the eye can see," says Sloan Kettering’s Dr. Jewell, who believes that surgery is the backbone for treatment of this kind of cancer. This involves first staging the cancer (seeing how far the cancer has spread from the ovary), with the goal being to remove as much of the tumor as possible.

However, Jewell acknowledges that surgery as a first option may not always be the right choice, which is why a treatment plan always needs to be custom-tailored to the specific needs of the patient. Treatment options may include chemotherapy, and radiation, complementary therapies (which, like acupuncture and meditation, are often used to relieve stress, nausea and fatigue) and possible participation in clinical trials. If you do have surgery and chemotherapy or radiation, it is also important to discuss what your treatment plan should be afterwards. What kind of exercises can you/should you do? What symptoms should you now watch out for? Is there anything you can do to reduce any side effects you might experience from any medications you will now be taking? Will you need any further blood tests, and, if so, how often? How will your lifestyle now be altered, if at all? What will your options be if your cancer comes back?

The bottom line: meeting with your doctor to let them know what is most important to you during this medical journey will best help them create the right treatment plan for you.

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

Dr. Elizabeth Jewell is a gynecologic oncologist and surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is also the Director of Surgery at MSK Monmouth and MSK Basking Ridge in New Jersey. Read More

Ovarian Cancer Initial Treatment

Deciding the first course of care for ovarian cancer is a crucial conversation between a woman and her gynecologic oncologist. Following a detailed diagnosis of the type of ovarian cancer, doctors typically recommend an aggressive combination of surgery and chemotherapy. Which treatment comes first depends on the stage and grade of the cancer.

NOW
PLAYING
What's the Best Ovarian Cancer Treatment Path? That Depends on Several Factors
NOW
PLAYING
Ovarian Cancer: The Robotic Surgery Experience
NOW
PLAYING
The Standard of Care for Initial Treatment of Ovarian Cancer
NOW
PLAYING
How Serious is My Illness? "Staging" Ovarian Cancer
NOW
PLAYING
PARP Inhibitors: Why is Genetic Testing Important?
NOW
PLAYING
PARP Inhibitors for Ovarian Cancer: An Overview

Patient Pathfinder:

Clinical Trial Finder

Are you looking for other treatment options?
Right now there are ... ovarian cancer trials in the U.S. within 100 miles of

Enter your zip code and travel distance to explore trials in your area...

Continue The Journey

Explore: Maintenance

Related Articles

Study Suggests Older Men Battling Prostate Cancer, Which Late Singer Harry Belafonte Fought, Are Continuously More Overtreated

Overview

Initial Workup and Staging Strategy For Gastric Cancer

Sam’s Warning: Fair Skinned Famous Weatherman Sam Champion, 63, Has Surgery For Skin Cancer– Tells People to Watch Out For Sun Damage

Famous Stand-Up Comedian, 63, Admits ‘Fear Never Ends, But I Keep Going’ As She Embarks On New Treatment For Ovarian Cancer

×

Introducing, the Journey Bar

Use this bar to access information about the steps in your cancer journey.

Please confirm you are a US based health care provider:

Yes, I am a health care Provider No, I am not a health care provider