Chemotherapy uses anti-cancer or 'cytotoxic' drugs to destroy cancer cells. You are most likely to be offered chemotherapy after your surgery if your cancer is Stage 1c or higher. You can also have chemotherapy for ovarian cancer that has come back after you were first treated.

Chemotherapy drugs for ovarian cancer are most often given as injections through a vein into the bloodstream. Some research has looked at giving chemotherapy into the abdomen. This is known as intraperitoneal chemotherapy.

There are a number of different chemotherapy drugs and treatment plans. And a great deal of research is being done into chemotherapy for ovarian cancer to see which are the most effective drugs in both stopping ovarian cancer from coming back and shrinking more advanced ovarian cancer.

Chemotherapy for ovarian cancer is most often given through a vein into the bloodstream. You are most likely to be offered chemotherapy after your surgery if your cancer is a high grade. You can also have chemotherapy for ovarian cancer that has come back (recurred) after you were first treated.

Some research has looked at giving chemotherapy into the abdomen for ovarian cancer. This is known as intraperitoneal chemotherapy. The doctor or nurse gives the chemotherapy through a tube inserted through the abdominal wall.

A review of all the studies that looked at intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IP) compared to intravenous chemotherapy found that IP chemotherapy helps a small number of women to live longer. But giving chemotherapy in this way also causes side effects, such as pain in the abdomen, blockage of the tube used to give the chemotherapy, digestive problems and infection. So, this way of giving chemotherapy is not commonly used and is only done as part of research trials.