Treatment Options for Low-Grade Serous Carcinoma

Source: Ovarian Epithelial, Fallopian Tube, and Primary Peritoneal Cancer Treatment (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version, National Cancer Institute.

Source updated: May 14, 2025 · Captured 2026-09-09.

Selected source text with whitespace normalised. This Triangle page is not an NCI PDQ summary.

Context: Treatment of Low-Grade Serous Carcinoma

Low-grade serous carcinoma (LGSC), also known as invasive micropapillary serous carcinoma, arises either from serous borderline tumors or de novo. These tumors are uncommon, making up 5% of ovarian carcinomas, and occur in younger women. These tumors are associated with a better clinical prognosis than high-grade serous carcinomas. Molecular characterization of LGSC detected a lower frequency of TP53 variants, greater expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors, and a higher prevalence of BRAF and NRAS variants.[1] Unlike patients with high-grade histologies, patients with LGSC often do not have a markedly elevated CA-125 level at the time of diagnosis.[2] LGSC is seen in patients with variants in homologous recombination repair genes. The frequency of variants in homologous recombination repair genes is much lower in patients with LGSC (around 11%) than in patients with high-grade histologies (27%).[3]

Source links and citations

Treatment approaches for patients with recurrent disease can include cytoreductive surgery, cytotoxic chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or targeted agents.

Treatment options for LGSC include:

Surgery with or without chemotherapy.

Source links and citations