When making decisions about treatment, doctors rely on guidelines published by expert authorities. Large groups of experts examine all of the available scientific evidence and use that knowledge to help develop these guidelines. Today, the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) have released a joint clinical practice guideline on the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for newly diagnosed, advanced ovarian cancer.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is chemotherapy given before surgery, often to reduce the size of the tumor before surgery. Women with advanced ovarian cancer sometimes receive cytoreductive or debulking surgery. Cytoreductive surgery is a surgical procedure in which as much of the tumor is removed as is safely possible.

In this podcast, Expert Panel Co-chairs Alexi Wright, MD, MPH, and Mitchell Edelson, MD, talk about the new guideline and why it is important for patients.  

• A summary of the main recommendations of these guidelines [1:38].

• A discussion of the scientific evidence that was reviewed to develop the guidelines [4:38].

• The importance of having someone who understands ovarian cancer make treatment decisions [7:40].

• Which patients are best suited for neoadjuvant chemotherapy and when surgery is appropriate [9:05].

• Guidelines are constantly being reviewed and updated. The decision between choosing neoadjuvant chemotherapy or primary surgery is a moving target [14:10].

• What do these recommendations mean for patients? [14:42].

Dr. Wright is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Edelson is a medical oncologist at the Hanjani Institute for Gynecologic Oncology at The Rosenfeld Cancer Center at Abington Hospital—Jefferson Health.

This is a prerecorded audio podcast. It can be listened to online or downloaded to your computer. A transcript of this podcast is also available. For more information, visit the Cancer.Net podcast page.