Second-line and recurrence therapy in advanced ovarian carcinoma is at present based more on clinical empiricism than on data from prospective comparative studies. The resulting uncertainty with respect to optimum treatment can only be removed by consistent and systematic clinical research. For this reason, the Ovarian Carcinoma Study Group in the `Arbeitsgemeinschaft Onkologie' (AGO) has decided to offer various studies not only for primary therapy but also for second- and third-line situations where differentiation is made in patients after paclitaxel/platinum pretreatment between women with platinum-refractory carcinomas and recurrence up to 6 months after completion of primary therapy, on the one hand, and patients with platinum-sensitive carcinomas with recurrence later than 12 months after completing primary therapy, on the other hand. In addition, a newly defined group with intermediate prognosis in whom the recurrence occurs between 6 and 12 months after completion of primary therapy has been included, A prospective randomized study is offered for each of these patient groups in which patients with platinum/paclitaxel pretreatment can be enrolled. Only the coherent evaluation of various treatment modalities can lead to an improvement in the quality of therapy in second- and third-line situations.