title: Treatment strategy for recurrent and refractory epithelial ovarian cancer: efficacy of high-dose chemotherapy with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
abstract: According to population statistics in Japan, approximately 3,800 women die of ovarian -cancer annually, and approximately 6,000 are affected by this disease. Ovarian cancer is -referred to as a "silent tumor", since patients have few subjective symptoms and by the time symptoms are observed, the cancer has progressed to Stage III or IV in about half of the patients. The basic treatment for advanced epithelial ovarian cancer is to remove as much of the tumor as possible, and subsequently to perform anticancer therapy using drugs such as cisplatin, carboplatin and paclitaxel, all of which have been shown to be effective for epithelial ovarian cancer. However, the 5-year survival rate in advanced ovarian cancer patients is still only about 20%, and a treatment that leads to long-term survival has yet to be developed. Here, we review the available treatments for ovarian cancer, and present the results of high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) performed in our hospital for recurrent and refractory -ovarian cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tokai University School of Medicine, Shimokasuya 143, Isehara, Kanagawa 259-1143, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshinari
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Muramatsu
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinozuka
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirasawa
authors.forename: Hitomi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsukada
authors.forename: Hironobu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miyamoto
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Murakami
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kajiwara
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yasuda
authors.forename: R Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Osamura
authors.forename: Mikio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mikami