Combined and expanded operations in patients with relapsed ovarian cancer and affected retroperitoneal lymph nodes

Objective: to analyze short-term and long-term outcomes of expanded surgeries in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer and to identify factors affecting their overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS).

Materials and methods. This retrospective study included patients with recurrent ovarian cancer stage I–IV less than 80 years of age who was treated in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology, N. N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology, between 2015 and 2017. Other inclusion criteria were as follows: time to relapse more than 12 months and no chemotherapy during the last 6 months or more. We analyzed the main perioperative parameters, OS, PFS, and prognostic factors affecting OS and PFS.

Results. This study included 55 patients. Of them, 44 (80 %) women have undergone complete cytoreductive surgery, whereas 11 (20 %) women have undergone optimal cytoreductive surgery. The median duration of surgery was 210 minutes (range: 60–390 minutes), median blood loss was 400 mL (range: 30–4500 mL). Postoperative complications were observed in 23 (41.2 %) patients; 5 (9.1 %) patients developed grade IIIB complications. Median follow-up time was 30.3 months (range: 7.5–67.1 months). Three-year OS was 73.7 % and three-year PFS was 30.7 %. More than one line of chemotherapy before repeated cytoreductive surgery was found to be a negative factor affecting OS (hazard ratio 2.749; 95 % confidence interval 1.059–7.138; p = 0.038). The primary ECOG performance status had a significant impact on PFS (hazard ratio 0.543; 95 % confidence interval 0.347–0.851; p = 0.008).

Conclusions. Poor ECOG status and more than one line of chemotherapy before repeated cytoreductive surgery for ovarian cancer relapse were demonstrated to have a negative impact on survival in this group of patients. However, in some patients, repeated cytoreductive surgeries ensured long-term remission. 

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