Objectives: This article aimed to study the role of adjuvant intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and optimal interval surgical debulking.
Method: All patients with epithelial ovarian cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were retrospectively reviewed from 2007 to 2009. Demographics, related diseases, and survival outcome data were abstracted from the medical records. χ statistics were applied to categorical variables. Cox regression was used to model progression-free survival (PFS), adjusting for age, residual status, and use of adjuvant IP chemotherapy. All P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results: Sixty-five patients were reviewed. The median age was 63.3 years. The majority had stage III disease with serous histology. Optimal residual (<1 cm) after interval debulking was achieved in 34 (54%) of 63 patients. Sixteen patients chose to receive adjuvant IP chemotherapy. The median follow-up was 26.2 months. Fifty-one patients had progressed, with a median PFS of 17.5 months. Adjuvant IP chemotherapy was not predictive of PFS (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.24-3.44; P = 0.89). The estimated median overall survival was 37.8 months (95% CI, 29.9-45.7) in the intravenous group versus 48.1 months (95% CI, 37.9-58.3) in the IP-treated patients (P = 0.162).
Conclusions: Adjuvant IP chemotherapy was not predictive of survival after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in our small exploratory study. The role of IP chemotherapy in this setting needs to be further studied in a larger prospective patient cohort.