In 1982, after surgery to remove three "massive" tumors,as they called them and with a belly full of ascites that made my slim flat tummy look 5 months pregnant (I gained 13 lbs in one month!), and then after the most aggressive chemo regimen available at the time failed (cisplatin and cytoxan in max dosages requiring hospital stay every 4 wks) and left me still with microscopic disease in stomach, at the recommendation of NCI, I was given full torso front and back radiation under the linear accelerator daily for 6 wks M-F, except for couple of days off when my blood counts dropped too low. Radiation to entire abdomen is very debilitating - by end of 6 wks you are totally wiped out. However, your strength returns dramatically once the radiation is completed - it doubles each day afterwards! I forced myself to eat fattening, nourishing shakes and avocado and bananas etc. despite intense nausea and I still lost weight, though not as much as most patients do. I took daily mega doses of vitamin C ( at least 20 grams!) and also 1000 i.u. of E daily and selenium. I had no skin burning because of the vitamins. Because there was nothing left to give me and because my insides were scarred from the surgery and radiation, docs saw no point in cutting me open for a "third look". I was told to just go home and take care of myself and come for checkups (pelvics). There was no CA-125 test in those days. I had to just live my life with no knowledge whether the cancer was gone. There were not the diagnostic tools in those days that exist now.
Well, it is now 2009 and I will be celebrating 28 years since diagnosis and original surgery. I had IIIa stage serous adenocarcinoma of ovaries and I was only 35 (BRCA-1 gene in the family). It drives me bonkers that radiation is not given to ovarian patients now in the U.S. or only rarely. The pharmaceutical lobby is too powerful. My best advice is to do all that you can to build your body nutritionally, avoid poisonous food additives, eat organically, lots of veggies and fruits, practice visualization, self-hypnosis to raise your blood counts, force yourself to eat, try to be treated by oncologists who are open to radiation therapy if the chemo (which seems to be first choice therapy and which is such poison) fails. Be pro-active and informed patient! Radiation is given in other first world countries for ovarian cancer. Don't just deliver yourself to the care of the docs without doing all that YOU can do to build your health - the chemo only tears you down, YOU must counteract the negative effects of chemo by doing all that you can to build your strength and your immune system.
By the way - metal-based chemo drugs like cisplatin are destructive to the kidneys. Many women died from that if they did not die of the cancer. Though the anti-oxidants I took trying to beat the cancer actually fought the chemo (I did not know that at the time) - new research has shown lab rats given anti-oxidants with cisplatin show less kidney damage! It has taken all these years for my kidneys to finally reach late stage failure due to chemo destruction. There can be no doubt that my kidneys lasted so long because of the nutritional regimen I followed. I will be needing a kidney transplant within next few months or so. Still, I had only a 30% chance to live 5 years and I was a single mother of two young children and now I am a happy grandmother and I lived long enough to see my kids reach their mid-30's and have families of their own! Please remember the cancer drugs you are given are meant to destroy, to poison the cancer cells. It is entirely up to YOU to build your strength and do all that you can nutritionally and mentally to strengthen your immune system and your body to withstand the rigors of the treatments. Avoid articifical sweeteners, eat organic food, lots of raw veggies and fruits and whole grains like tabouli salad. This is a battle and you need to approach it like that if you are going to have the best chance to make it through this.