Loading
Below, week by week, is what OnCo's record of Adult granulosa cell tumour of the ovary says about the first two months: the order is typical, the timing is yours to ask about. Granulosa cell tumours, a rare form of ovarian cancer, make oestrogen, so they often announce themselves with abnormal bleeding, and almost all carry the same single FOXL2 mutation. Surgery cures most; relapses come late and are treated with further surgery, hormone-blocking drugs, bevacizumab or chemotherapy. Sections appear only where the record has something to say. Orientation, not medical advice.
Staging tests establish exactly what and where the cancer is. Everything else follows from the answers.
Ask which of these were tested and what the results were; see the report reader for what each value means.
These specialties appear in the standard of care for this cancer. In most centres they meet weekly as a tumour board to agree each plan; you can ask when yours was discussed and what was decided.
A second opinion from a centre that treats many similar cases is normal, not rude; the standard of care tells you what to compare it against.
Each row is a setting from the standard of care, in the order it usually arises. Not all will apply to you; your stage and biomarkers decide which do. The guideline grade, where recorded, says how strong the evidence is.
Surgical staging with hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, or unilateral oophorectomy to preserve fertility; endometrial sampling because of oestrogen exposure; no adjuvant therapy.
Lifelong monitoring with inhibin B and imaging because relapses occur decades later.
Repeat cytoreduction; aromatase inhibitors such as letrozole; bevacizumab; carboplatin-paclitaxel or BEP chemotherapy.
Generated from this cancer's standard of care, biomarkers and open problems. Take the group that matches where you are. To tick, add your own and print, open the one-page appointment sheet.
Much of what helps in the first weeks is free if you know to ask: testing, helplines, rides and lodging, second opinions, trial travel.