Gynecologic malignancies.

No new publication appeared in the past year on early stage ovarian cancer. The current GOG study will help determine the relative benefits and toxicities of intraperitoneal P32 versus cyclophosphamide and cisplatin in this group of patients. Recent studies in advanced ovarian carcinoma suggest a modest additional benefit for multidrug regimens, but cisplatin and cyclophosphamide remains an acceptable first line treatment for stage III and IV disease. Additional information on the use of carboplatin in advanced disease has been published, and this agent is now accepted as part of standard first line treatment programs. Platinum-based chemotherapy continues to be the mainstay of treatment for recurrent disease. With the commercial availability of taxol, a new salvage treatment is now available. Taxol will be increasingly studied as a part of front-line therapy as well as its role in the salvage setting. Altretamine and ifosfamide appear to have activity even in some patients with platinum-resistant disease, but these drugs will not likely have a major impact on ovarian cancer treatment. The use of high-dose chemotherapy with autologous bone marrow or peripheral stem cell support offers an exciting and potentially beneficial approach for patients with poor prognosis disease. The use of intraperitoneal chemotherapy and biologic agents continues to be problematic, and additional improvements are needed before they are considered useful outside of a research setting. With the exception of P32 for early stage disease, radiation therapy is likely to continue to play a minor role in the treatment of ovarian cancer. Few studies involving non-epithelial ovarian carcinomas were published during the past year. A definitive report was published demonstrating the activity of cisplatin-based chemotherapy (BEP) in patients with advanced dysgerminoma. Chemotherapy which preserves fertility provides an effective alternative to irradiation. Cisplatin-based chemotherapy was active in mixed mullerian tumors of the ovary although the prognosis of these patients was worse than patients with epithelial ovarian cancer. Concurrent chemotherapy added to irradiation has not improved survival over radiotherapy alone in patients with cancer of the uterine cervix. Patients still failed locally and distantly. Extended field irradiation to involved paraaortic lymph nodes with weekly cisplatin generated promising pilot data. Randomized trials evaluating the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to pelvic radiotherapy showed no benefit and increased toxicity. Ifosfamide alone or in combination regimens is an active drug but with serious side effects which require careful monitoring.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)