[Intermittent administration of the combination chemotherapy with cis-platin, adriamycin and cyclophosphamide (cyclic-PAC chemotherapy) for the ovarian cancers].

Despite cis-platin-based combination chemotherapy with initially high response rates in advanced ovarian cancer, the overall survival rate remains unsatisfactory. This prompted us to design a new systematic approach using a combination chemotherapy consisting of cis-platin, adriamycin and cyclophosphamide (PAC), namely cyclic-PAC chemotherapy: Three-step chemotherapies consisting of 3 courses of the PAC regimen in each step were administered for 18 months to patients with Stage Ic-IV, after cytoreductive surgery and chemotherapy. In the present study, the survival rate with the cyclic-PAC chemotherapy was compared to that with short course-PAC and FAM (5-Fu, Alkylating agent and Mitomycin C) chemotherapies. The cyclic-PAC, PAC and FAM groups included 24 cases, 31 cases and 30 cases, respectively. Treatment of Stage Ic-IV diseases by cyclic-PAC improved the outcome (66% 3-year survival rate) compared to PAC and FAM groups (PAC 35% and FAM 30% 3-year survival rates), while no difference was observed between PAC and FAM. The outcome for patients with Stage III. IV was also superior for the cyclic-PAC group compared to the PAC and FAM groups (cyclic-PAC 54%, PAC 18% and FAM 13% 3-year survival rates). Cyclic-PAC chemotherapy is capable of dramatically improving the long-term survival rate of ovarian cancer patients.