Recurrent ovarian cancer is occasionally curable.
Second-, third-, or even fourth-line chemotherapy is often administered in a palliative approach, as a means of diminishing symptoms and prolonging life. When chemotherapy is considered for patients with good performance status, it is most appropriate to offer enrolment in formal clinical studies. When chemotherapeutic options are exhausted or their adverse effects are not worth the small potential for benefit, other means of palliating symptoms of progressive ovarian cancer are necessary.
Ovarian cancer spreads regionally in the form of scattered deposits of tumor on all surfaces in the peritoneal cavity; morbidity and mortality are typically a direct result of this process.

Patients may have any of the following signs and symptoms:
- anorexia
- ascites
- bowel obstruction
- constipation
- dyspnea

See reference for more information.

Adapted from Medscape Drugs & Diseases. Palliative care of the patient with advanced gynecologic cancer. Available at http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/270646-overview#a3. Accessed on August 31, 2016. To view the entire article and all other content on the Medscape Drugs & Diseases site, a free, one-time registration is required.