Does modality of adjuvant chemotherapy after interval surgical debulking matter in epithelial ovarian cancer?: An exploratory analysis.

OBJECTIVES

This article aimed to study the role of adjuvant intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and optimal interval surgical debulking.

METHOD

All patients with epithelial ovarian cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were retrospectively reviewed from 2007 to 2009. Demographics, related diseases, and survival outcome data were abstracted from the medical records. χ statistics were applied to categorical variables. Cox regression was used to model progression-free survival (PFS), adjusting for age, residual status, and use of adjuvant IP chemotherapy. All P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

Sixty-five patients were reviewed. The median age was 63.3 years. The majority had stage III disease with serous histology. Optimal residual (<1 cm) after interval debulking was achieved in 34 (54%) of 63 patients. Sixteen patients chose to receive adjuvant IP chemotherapy. The median follow-up was 26.2 months. Fifty-one patients had progressed, with a median PFS of 17.5 months. Adjuvant IP chemotherapy was not predictive of PFS (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.24-3.44; P = 0.89). The estimated median overall survival was 37.8 months (95% CI, 29.9-45.7) in the intravenous group versus 48.1 months (95% CI, 37.9-58.3) in the IP-treated patients (P = 0.162).

CONCLUSIONS

Adjuvant IP chemotherapy was not predictive of survival after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in our small exploratory study. The role of IP chemotherapy in this setting needs to be further studied in a larger prospective patient cohort.