[Biology of ovarian carcinoma and the hope of individualised therapy].

For ovarian cancer therapy, the detailed analysis of the individual case becomes more and more important. The stage of growth is very significant. Owing to a more comprehensive primary diagnosis and to a more aggressive surgery, recently diagnosed cases cannot be compared with corresponding stages of past years. The experiences of therapies based on passed staging are not valid any more. The traditional staging (FIGO or UICC) takes in too little account the different forms of growth: so, f.i., tumors with solitary metastases and/or node involvement on one hand and tumors of primarily diffuse growth on the other one. The size of the tumor remaining after surgery depends not only from the surgeon's technique and experience but also from the type of growth of the individual carcinoma. As for morphology, the different types characterized by different growth and probably by different reaction to chemotherapy, have to be taken into consideration. The grade, however, is of special importance. The cancer of low malignant potential must be defined and be treated in a different way from invasive carcinoma. Unfortunately, we still do not have a standard definition of the different grades. Nowadays, biological investigations of tumor tissue come more and more to the fore, such as chemosensitivity testing, investigation of estrogen and progesterone receptors, of membrane receptors, and studies in transplantation of tumor tissue in nu/nu mice. They will more and more have therapeutic consequences. General condition has been very much neglected until now though it is very important for the development of the disease. Age is an important but not the essential factor and must be put in correlation with many other factors of prognosis.