Meet the Experts

Kristina Rua, BSN, RN

Patient Nurse Navigator with Miami Cancer Institute

Videos

Stages of Ovarian Cancer

Kristina Rua, Patient Nurse Navigator with Miami Cancer Institute, explains a stage one tumor is confined to the ovary, and a stage two cancer would be on both ovaries and extending into the fallopian tubes. "The amount of tumors does not differentiate the stage, it is more where the location is", she says. Some symptoms of ovarian cancer are weight loss, discomfort in the pelvis area, and a frequent need to urinate.

Types of Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial tumors, stromal tumors, and germ cell tumors are the different types of ovarian cancer. Kristina Rua, Patient Nurse Navigator with Miami Cancer Institute, explains the epithelial tumor is the tumor that comes from the actual outer portion of the ovary, and it is the big majority of the of ovarian cancers. "85% to 90% of tumors are epithelial tumors and they are also the most aggressive, unfortunately."

Ovarian Cancer and Chemotherapy

Kristina Rua, Patient Nurse Navigator with Miami Cancer Institute, says if the ovarian cancer is stage one or two, you can do fertility sparing. "If you do have to remove the uterus and the ovaries, they can do some type of fertility sparing or they can preserve some eggs and then look into surrogacy so that you can have biological children." She also explains chemotherapy hits benign and malignant cells and it stops the reproduction of the cancer cell. "Chemotherapy is used in a big majority of our ovarian cancers."

Ovarian Cancer: Chemotherapy Side Effects

Fatigue, weight loss, and nausea are some of the most common side effects of chemotherapy. Kristina Rua, Patient Nurse Navigator with Miami Cancer Institute, says fatigue is the biggest and most common complaint of patients. "The common misconception with fatigue is that if you are tired, you sit down and rest. Chemotherapy fatigue, the biggest and best way to treat it is to exercise. Patients that are more active and involved into light exercise tend to do better and have less long-term effects of fatigue."

Gynecological Cancers

Kristina Rua, Patient Nurse Navigator with Miami Cancer Institute, says other types of gynecological cancers are cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, and fallopian cancer. "Cervical cancer is one of the ones we are seeing a lot." She explains studies has shown that so many of the cervical cancers are caused from HPV. "Having an HPV vaccine out there is huge, and it is something that we really stress, encourage and educate patients for themselves and their children that they should get vaccinated to prevent HPV related cancers."

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