Treatment of ovarian cancer in the Southern Swedish Health Care Region during the five-year period 1974-1978.

A total of 555 cases of malignant epithelial ovarian tumour diagnosed in vivo was reported to the Regional Tumour Registry for Southern Sweden, Lund during 1974-1978. Of these 428 (77%) were referred to the Department of Oncology, Lund, which serves the Southern Swedish Health Care Region. Patients not being referred were mostly elderly with advanced tumours. The selection of patients will thus affect the evaluation of the treatment results. The standard surgical procedure was bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy with or without hysterectomy, and infracolic omentectomy. 95% of the patients were treated according to a randomized trial including postoperative chemotherapy, radiotherapy or a combination of both. Preoperative radiotherapy in primarily inoperable patients increased the operability. 34% of all stage IIb, IIc, III, and IV-patients were thus operated or reoperated with only small residual tumour or none at all following surgery. Stage, grade and size of postoperative residual tumour were the most important prognostic factors. The five-year cumulative survival rate for all patients referred to the Department of Oncology was 32%.