Before Treatment
Taking an active role in your care will help you foster an open, productive partnership with your healthcare team. Be sure to talk to your doctor or nurse about how you feel or any concerns you may have.

Knowledge is power. Educate yourself and your family and friends about:

• Possible side effects
  
• How to optimize your DOXIL treatment by proactively managing side effects
  
• How you and your healthcare team will work together
  
• Available community groups as well as resources through the Community Connection
  

During Treatment
DOXIL is given by intravenous (IV) infusion, normally in the doctor’s office or in a clinic. Your treatment will usually take approximately one hour, although the first treatment may be longer. You will typically receive DOXIL treatments every 4 weeks for a minimum of 4 courses. However, speak with your doctor or nurse for your exact treatment schedule.

A rise in CA-125 levels may seem troubling. However, CA-125 is only one of the many indicators of how you may be doing. A single CA-125 test is never definitive. For this reason, serial testing of CA-125 is very useful during therapy for recurrent ovarian cancer. In addition, CA-125 is only one indicator of response. It is important to remember that while CA-125 can aid the process of diagnosis and treatment decisions in recurrent ovarian cancer, it is not often used as the only tool for screening or monitoring treatment response. If you are concerned about your CA-125 results, talk to your doctor. Work with your healthcare team to understand what tests are being used to evaluate your progress.

Continuing Treatment
It is important to complete the first four cycles of DOXIL therapy as long as you do not clinically progress, continue to tolerate treatment, and show no evidence of cardiotoxicity because clinical trials have shown this is the median time to response. If DOXIL is well-tolerated, your physician may decide to continue your DOXIL treatment for as long as you are seeing a benefit to therapy.