Impact of secondary cytoreductive surgery on survival of patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer

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Aims To investigate the impact on survival of secondary cytoreduction for advanced epithelial ovarian cancer and variables influencing redebulking surgical outcome. Methods Between 1986 and 1997, 106 patients who received secondary cytoreductive surgery and consequent second-line chemotherapy for stages III and IV epithelial ovarian cancer were retrospectively reviewed. The optimal residual disease cut-off was 1.0 cm. The Cox proportional regression model and logistic stepwise regression were used in statistical processing of the data. Results The median age of the patients was 50 years (range, 26–77 years). Optimal secondary cytoreduction was achieved in 46 of 106 patients (43.4%). There was a significant difference in survival between patients who were optimally cytoreduced compared to those suboptimaly cytoreduced, with an estimated median survival in the optimal group of 20 months vs 8 months in the suboptimal group (2=42.03, P=0.0000). When factorized, patients had significant survival benefit from optimal secondary cytoreduction for recurrent disease and interval cytoreduction. Survival was adversely influenced by progression-free interval ≤12 months (P=0.0078), residual disease >1 cm (P=0.0001) and presence of refractory ascites (P=0.0001). The probability of successful redebulking surgery was affected by presence of refractory ascites (P=0.0023) in all 106 patients and by the ascites (P=0.0072) and residual disease at initial operation in recurrent disease (P=0.0096). Conclusion Secondary surgical cytoreduction surgery significantly lengthened survival for patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer or those receiving interval cytoreduction. Patients with refractory ascites, however, were not suitable for aggressive secondary surgery, and redebulking surgery for those with residual disease of >1.0 cm after primary operation should be considered prudently in recurrent disease.