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

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.

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