Advanced stage III ovarian carcinoma. Prospective randomized trials comparing radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

A prospective randomized trial was carried out in 128 patients with advanced stage III ovarian tumors of serous and anaplastic type, to compare the effects of radiotherapy, single-drug chemotherapy and combination chemotherapy on operability and survival. The effect on operability was about the same for radiotherapy as for combination chemotherapy, whereas single-drug chemotherapy was less effective. The effect on survival was significantly greater with the combination chemotherapy than with radiotherapy and single-drug chemotherapy, which were roughly similar. This better survival with combination chemotherapy was observed in both poorly and moderately differentiated tumors.