Pattern of care study for treatment of ovarian cancer patients among Japanese gynecologists. A Japanese Gynecologic Oncology Group (JGOG) study

Abstract

15029 Background: The Japanese Society of Gynecologic Oncology started a training program for the subspecialty of board certified gynecologic oncologists in 2005. This study aimed to assess the attitude of Japanese gynecologists for the treatment of ovarian cancer in pre-gynecologic oncologist era. Methods: The JGOG distributed a survey to 217 member institutions in January 2005. The principal investigator (PI) of each institution answered 33 questionnaires regarding diagnostic, surgical and chemotherapy issues. The survey was returned from 156 institutions (71.9%). Results: Hospital settings were general (44%), academic (44%), Cancer Center (8%), or private (4%). Only two of PIs were medical oncologists and rests of them were gynecologists. As the staging procedure in early ovarian cancer, 67% institutions do systemic pelvic lymphadenectomy (LNX) but 22% do only sampling. For the paraaortic nodes, 36% do systemic LNX and 10% do sampling below renal vein, and 14% do LNX and 12% do sampling below inferior mesenteric artery. However, intraabdominal explorations such as multiple peritoneal biopsies have been done only less than 30% except for omentectomy (90%). With regard to the surgery for advanced ovarian cancer, 57% institutions do not do any intestinal resection and anastomosis during the primary surgery. Among them 7% of institutions prefer neoadjuvant chemotherapy (no debulking at all) for advanced ovarian cancer. However, 84% of the institutions do interval debulking and 57% of them are quite aggressive for the procedure. These results demonstrate the high expectation that chemotherapy may reduce the aggressiveness of surgery for advanced ovarian cancer. In terms of chemotherapy for the high-risk early and advanced ovarian cancer, taxane plus platinum is the most used regimen (93–95%). However, 45% of institutions prefer different regimen for clear cell carcinoma. CPT-11 is the most used (88.6%). Intraperitoneal chemotherapy has been performed in 28.2% of institutions. 37.2% of institutions do consolidation chemotherapy. Conclusions: This is an important base-line information to assess the pattern of care for ovarian cancer patients in the era before gynecologic oncologist subspecialty is applicable in Japan. No significant financial relationships to disclose.