Mercy's Dr. Dwight Im Discusses Efficacy of Treating Patients with Chemotherapy Prior to Ovarian Cancer Surgery

Ovarian cancer often goes undetected, and when it reaches a late stage, it can be difficult to treat.

But treatments have improved for many patients.

In the past, ovarian cancer was typically treated with surgery, then six months of chemotherapy. But according to Mercy gynecologic oncologist Dr. Dwight Im,  Medical Director, The Neil B. Rosenshein, M.D., Institute for Gynecologic Care at Mercy and a nationally acclaimed expert in robotic surgery, newer procedure is helping patients.

"The newer method in certain cases is three rounds of chemotherapy first, followed by surgery, followed by another three rounds of chemotherapy,” Dr. Im said. “(It's) sort of a sandwich technique.”

With the newer method, patients are less sick going into surgery and the chemotherapy helps shrink the size of the tumor.

“If we can make them less sick by doing chemotherapy first, that would make a lot of sense,” Dr. Im explained. “That's where robotic surgery makes a lot of sense.”

The robotic arm allows smaller, more precise incisions.

To view Mercy’s Dr. Dwight Im’s interview regarding chemotherapy prior to ovarian cancer surgery, click here.