The short answer
Ovarian cancer is usually treated with surgery to remove as much cancer as possible, followed by chemotherapy. Targeted therapy is used for some ovarian cancers, and biomarker testing can help guide treatment.
Treatment usually combines surgery and chemotherapy.
Surgery aims to remove as much of the cancer as possible.
Chemotherapy is used after surgery, and sometimes before.
Targeted therapy helps some ovarian cancers, including those with BRCA changes.
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The full explanation.
The simple version
Ovarian cancer treatment almost always combines two things: surgery and chemotherapy. This is true whether doctors catch it early or it has already spread through the belly.
Spread is common. Ovarian cancer often causes few symptoms until it's advanced. Beyond surgery and chemo, biomarker testing increasingly shapes the plan. Testing looks for BRCA — changes in genes that normally help repair DNA. A BRCA change can open up a whole extra set of drugs.
Surgery: staging and removing as much as possible
Surgery does two jobs at once. It removes the tumor. It also tells doctors the stage. Ovarian cancer is staged partly by what surgeons find during the operation, not just by scans beforehand.
The standard operation removes several things:
- The uterus (called a hysterectomy).
- Both ovaries and fallopian tubes (bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy).
- The omentum, a layer of fatty tissue in the belly where this cancer often spreads (omentectomy).
- Lymph nodes and other nearby tissue, checked under a microscope.
For advanced disease, surgeons aim for "optimal debulking." That means removing as much visible tumor as they can. How much tumor is left after surgery strongly predicts how well later treatment works.
Some people with early-stage cancer want to keep their fertility. There's another option for them. Surgeons can remove only the affected ovary and tube (unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy). The rest of the reproductive organs stay in place. Talk with your surgical team about this before surgery. The standard operation removes the uterus and both ovaries.
Chemotherapy: usually paired with surgery, not instead of it
Chemotherapy is standard alongside surgery for almost all ovarian cancer past the earliest stage. The usual combo is two drugs: carboplatin and paclitaxel.
Chemo can be given two ways. It can go into a vein, reaching your whole body. Or it can go straight into the belly through a catheter, aiming higher doses right where this cancer tends to spread. Doctors call that second method intraperitoneal chemo.
Chemo may start after surgery. Sometimes it starts first instead, to shrink a large tumor. Doctors call this neoadjuvant chemo. They lean this way when surgery alone looks unlikely to remove all visible disease up front.
Where BRCA testing changes the plan
Doctors usually offer BRCA1/BRCA2 testing to every woman with ovarian cancer. This can be done on the tumor, on a blood sample, or both. The result shapes treatment choices, not just future risk.
PARP inhibitors are a group of targeted drugs. Olaparib, rucaparib, and niraparib are the three in use. They work by exploiting a weak spot in some cancer cells: those cells can't repair their own DNA normally. That weak spot is especially common in BRCA-mutated cancers.
Doctors use these drugs as maintenance therapy. You take them after chemo has done its work, to delay the cancer's return. They work best when your cancer has a BRCA mutation or a related DNA-repair defect. Some other people benefit too. Whether you get a PARP inhibitor, and how much it might help, depends on that test result. That's the real reason to ask about BRCA testing, even without a family history of the mutation.
Bevacizumab and treatment for recurrence
Bevacizumab is a targeted therapy. It blocks the tumor's ability to grow new blood vessels, by binding a protein called VEGF. Doctors may add it to chemo, especially when the cancer has come back after first treatment.
Ovarian cancer recurrence is common. Many women face at least one round of treatment for cancer that returns. At that point, treatment usually draws from the same toolkit: more chemo, PARP inhibitors (alone or with chemo), bevacizumab, or a clinical trial. Your team picks based on how long it's been since your last treatment, what you used before, and your biomarker results.
What to ask your team
Ask directly: Has my tumor been tested for BRCA and related markers? What did that show? How much tumor was removed at surgery? Does that change my chemo plan? Is a PARP inhibitor right for me as maintenance therapy? It's also worth asking about a clinical trial at any stage. Ovarian cancer treatment keeps changing as trials report new results.
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Words to know
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Common questions
What are the main treatments?
Surgery and chemotherapy are the main treatments. Surgery removes as much of the cancer as possible, and chemotherapy is usually given after (and sometimes before) surgery.
What is targeted therapy for ovarian cancer?
Targeted therapy, including drugs called PARP inhibitors, helps some ovarian cancers, especially those linked to BRCA gene changes. Biomarker testing helps decide if these fit.
Why is genetic testing often recommended?
Many people with ovarian cancer are offered genetic testing, because inherited changes like BRCA can affect treatment options and have implications for family members.
What guides treatment?
The stage and type of ovarian cancer, along with biomarker and genetic testing, guide the treatment plan.
Questions to ask your doctor
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Last updated: 2026-08-04Next planned review: 2027-07-07
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How this page was created
Cancer Explained does not originate medical claims. Every page restates guidance already published by the National Cancer Institute, the CDC, the USPSTF and the FDA, in plain language, with the source cited so you can check the original yourself. AI does the translating and organizing; automated checks test claims, citations, clarity and safety before anything publishes. We do not employ clinicians and do not intend to — our work is translation and navigation, not clinical judgment. Nothing here is personal medical advice, and no page can account for your particular situation.
Editorial status: Source checked — This page was written with AI assistance and checked line by line against the sources listed on it. That confirms the sources support what the page says. It is not a medical review, and it does not confirm the page is complete or right for your situation.
Human medical review: not completed. Pages here are not signed off by a clinician before they publish. That is not an oversight we are quietly working around: we restate published guidance and cite it, so the authority belongs to the source rather than to us, and every page names where its claims come from — you can verify us instead of trusting us. Where a volunteer clinician has reviewed a page, their name and credentials appear on it; where no name appears, no clinician has checked it. We are glad to have reviewers and are recruiting them, and we do not hold pages back waiting for one. Use this site to understand your situation and to ask better questions of the people treating you.
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