My wife was scheduled to have three 3-week chemo sessions, followed by surgery to remove tumors, followed by another three 3-week chemo sessions. She has metastatic ovarian cancer.
We learned yesterday that the surgery must be postponed due to hospital availability issues and that she is otherwise ready for surgery. The chemo sessions will continue until she has had all six. Then the surgery, if not performed earlier, will happen.
I expected that chemo would be used to "clean up" any cancer cells remaining after surgery. I don't understand how the last step in her treatment can be surgery.
I welcome comments from anybody who is knowledgeable about this.
Every case is different, but as a rule, with ovarian cancer they first go in and do a total hysterectomy, take everything out then you do the chemo sessions. After that they do a second look surgery to look at everything and see if there is any evidence of disease.
It sounds like they want to do half the chemo on your wife first to try to contain/shrink the tumors then go in and remove everything and then finish the chemo.