Surgery in recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer: benefits on Survival for patients with residual disease of 0.1-1 cm after secondary cytoreduction.

AIMS

Recent retrospective trials stated that a benefit of surgery for recurrent ovarian cancer may be limited to patients in whom a complete cytoreduction (R0) could be achieved. Most of them pointed out there was no difference in survival between residual disease of 0.1-1 cm (R1) and >1 cm (R2). The aim of this study was to evaluate survival benefits from cytoreduction to R1.

METHODS

Between 2002 and 2006, 123 patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer undergoing secondary cytoreduction were identified from tumor registry databases.

RESULTS

The median age at recurrence was 51 years (range: 28-84). Fifty-one (41.5%) patients had R0, 46 (37.4%) patients had R1, and 26 (21.1%) patients had R2 resection. The median survival of the entire cohort was 31.7 months, with an estimated 5-year survival of 31.1%. The median survival and estimated 5-year survival for patients with R1 were 31.1 months and 23.9%, and there were significant differences in survival when compared to 15.6 months and 6.4% in R2 (chi(2) = 7.45, P = 0.006), 63.2 months (mean survival) and 54.4% in complete cytoreduction (chi(2) = 8.93, P = 0.0028).

CONCLUSIONS

Complete secondary cytoreduction is the strongest survival determinant in recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer, whereas patients with residual disease of 0.1-1 cm may also benefit from secondary cytoreduction.