High-dose chemotherapy with autologous bone marrow transplantation in patients with refractory ovarian cancer.

Eleven patients with persistent ovarian cancer after remission-induction chemotherapy were treated with high-dose cyclophosphamide and etoposide followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT). Six complete responses (CR), of which five were pathologically confirmed, were achieved in eight patients who had microscopic or residual disease less than or equal to 2 cm at the start of high-dose chemotherapy. The median duration of response was 15 months with two sustained CRs after respectively 43 and 75 months. None of the three patients with residual disease greater than 2 cm responded. The median survival measured from the start of the ABMT regimen was for all patients 23 months. These results suggest that high-dose systemic chemotherapy followed by ABMT is a therapeutic option in patients with refractory ovarian cancer deserving further investigation.