Drugs used for ovarian cancer

This page tells you about the chemotherapy drugs used to treat ovarian cancer and their side effects. There is information about

A quick guide to what's on this page
Chemo for localised ovarian cancer
Chemo for cancer that comes back
Chemotherapy side effects

Drugs used for ovarian cancer

When you are first diagnosed, after surgery for ovarian cancer you are likely to have carboplatin chemotherapy, or a combination of paclitaxel (Taxol) and carboplatin. You usually have chemotherapy treatment every 3 weeks. You normally have about 6 treatments in all. But you may have more.

Drugs for advanced ovarian cancer

If your cancer comes back more than 6 months after your initial chemotherapy, you are most likely to have carboplatin and paclitaxel. Other possible treatments include paclitaxel alone, liposomal doxorubicin or topotecan.

If your cancer comes back less than 6 months after having chemotherapy, you may have paclitaxel on its own (if you have not had it before), liposomal doxorubicin, gemcitabine with carboplatin, topotecan or cisplatin.

All chemotherapy has side effects. Which ones you get depend on the drugs you have, the dose and your individual reaction. There are links to more information about the drugs used for ovarian cancer and their side effects further down this page.

CR PDF Icon You can view and print the quick guides for all the pages in the treating ovarian cancer section.

You may have surgery as your first treatment for ovarian cancer, followed by chemotherapy. Or you may have some chemotherapy, then have surgery, and then the rest of your chemotherapy. Whenever you have it, you are most likely to have chemotherapy into a vein using

Carboplatin alone
Carboplatin with paclitaxel (Taxol)

You have the chemotherapy drugs injected into one of your veins (intravenously or IV) so that they can circulate through your bloodstream. You usually have a chemotherapy treatment every 3 weeks. You normally have about 6 treatments in all. But you may have more.

It takes 3 to 4 hours to have each treatment in the outpatients department. Rarely, doctors give this treatment over 24 hours instead of 3 to 4 hours. So you would need to stay in hospital overnight for that.

There is a great deal of research into chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. Doctors are trying to find the drugs that work best at stopping ovarian cancer from coming back.

Ovarian cancer that comes back is called recurrent ovarian cancer.

If your cancer comes back more than six months after your initial chemotherapy, your specialist is likely to suggest carboplatin and paclitaxel (Taxol) treatment as an option. Other possible treatments include

Paclitaxel alone
Liposomal doxorubicin (also called Caelyx or Doxil)
Topotecan

Or your specialist may suggest other drugs, either alone or in combination such as oxaliplatin and fluorouracil.

Liposomal doxorubicin is a different form of the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin. The drug is contained inside fatty droplets. This helps more of it to get into the cancer cells and less into normal body tissues.

If your cancer comes back less than 6 months after having chemotherapy, your specialist may suggest one of the following treatments

Paclitaxel (Taxol) alone - if you did not have it when you were first treated
Liposomal doxorubicin
Gemcitabine with carboplatin
Cisplatin
Topotecan (Hycamtin)

Not all these treatments are recommended for everyone. You shouldn't have either topotecan or liposomal doxorubicin if you are too ill to look after yourself and are in bed most of the time. You also shouldn't have topotecan if you have a blockage in your bowel.

All chemotherapy has side effects. The effects you get depend on

The particular drugs that you have
How much of each drug you have
How you individually react to each drug

All the chemotherapy drugs mentioned above can cause

There is also information about the individual side effects for each drug at these links - carboplatin, topotecan, liposomal doxorubicin, gemcitabine, cisplatin, and paclitaxel (Taxol). There is more about chemotherapy side effects and how to deal with them in the section about chemotherapy.

Ask your doctor or nurse which side effects are most common with the chemotherapy drugs you will be having. And tell your doctor or nurse straight away about any side effects you have, so they can help you as soon as possible. There may be treatment you can have to help.

Chemotherapy courses can seem to last for a long time. It can get particularly tiring towards the end of your course of treatment. This can be difficult to deal with, but the side effects will gradually go once your treatment has ended.