Ovarian-Cyst.org

From http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/255771-overview
The 5-year survival rates for ovarian carcinoma are as follows:
* Stage I – 73%
* Stage II – 45%
* Stage III – 21%
* Stage IV – Less than 5%
From this 1990 study http://www.springerlink.com/content/q071u3837210328q/ – the estimated median survival times for stage III and IV ovarian carcinoma patients was ~ 20 months.

A word of caution – median survivals do not help tell us much about any one individual. Some do much better than 20 months, and some do not live as long. There is a wide variation in lengths of survivals.

There are many factors that would affect an estimation of prognosis – factors that the oncologist following this case knows and we do not. How old is she? What is her overall health status? What therapy has been tried? Is she refractory to front line chemotherapy? What is her overall health and performance status? What is the estimated bulk of her malignant disease? Has the cancer been optimally debulked surgically? Is she a candidate for aggressive surgery?

Every person is unique. We cannot predict expected times of death months ahead of time. Family members often push for a guess, and we usually wind up being wrong when we try to make long term predictions. The end is easy to see only when it is near – in the last few weeks or days.

I am sorry and am not qualified to answer this question, but whoever you know who has this cancer, I’ll keep them in my thoughts. Keep them very comfortable.

Can’t tell you the eaverage time but generally when cancer spreads to other organs a person’s prognosis is poor. Some people, however; can still fight it and in some cases have been able to achieve remission, or at least stable disease without progression. Stage 4 cancer is a very bad diagnosis and many Drs will choose to go with hospice or palliative care instead of curative or contolling treatment because the chances of success are usually low.

Stage 4 means that the cancer has spread, you will need to talk to the doctors for an estimated time. If there are treatments to slow down its progress then there will be more time then if there is nothing now left for them to try. I am sorry not to be more specific, – my own oncologist always says that the statistics mean nothing, and that is true because you are either one of the lucky ones or not.

Here’s hoping that your friend stays lucky for as long as she can have a good quality of life.