Medicare Rule Raises Dilemma in Recurrent Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic malignancies. In 1996, an estimated 26,000 new cases were diagnosed, and approximately 14,000 women died of this disease in the United States alone.[1] Between 75% and 80% of ovarian cancer patients present with advanced disease at diagnosis, and these patients have a 5-year survival rate of 21%.[2,3]