Diagnosis and treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer.

Epithelial ovarian cancer is a highly curable disease when diagnosed in an early stage. Unfortunately, treatment for advanced stage disease is mainly palliative. This article will review new developments in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer involving diagnostic imaging techniques and circulating tumor markers. It will discuss the current role of surgery in the treatment of the disease, including cytoreductive surgery, interval debulking surgery and surgery following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. It will evaluate the currently available chemotherapy treatments for epithelial ovarian cancers and present new developments in the medical management of this disease.