Purpose: The purpose of the study is to assess the benefits of maintenance chemotherapy (CT) in epithelial ovarian cancer with CT and surgery. The primary and secondary endpoints of the study were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), respectively.
Patients and methods: Three hundred patients with ovarian cancer (registered between January 2012 and December 2013) received 6 cycles of 3 weekly CT (injection paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 + injection carboplatin 6 AUC) and surgery. After 4 weeks of completion of the above treatment, patients were assessed for response with radiological imaging and serum CA125. Then, these patients were randomly allotted in two arms; 150 patients in Arm A received 6 cycles of single agent, 3 weekly injection paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 as maintenance therapy while 150 patients in Arm B, were on observation. The follow-up was done at 1 month, then 3 monthly in the 1st year and 6 monthly in the 2nd year to evaluate PFS and annually up to 5 years for OS.
Results: The PFS at 1 and 2 years was 91% and 80% in study arm and 65% and 50% in control arm; the differences were statistically significant (P = 0.010). The 5-year overall survival was 43% versus 38% in study and control arms, respectively (P = 0.410) and 5-year PFS was 28% versus 18% (P = 0.039) in maintenance and observation arm, respectively. Except for peripheral neuropathy, there was no statistically significant difference in toxicities between the two arms.
Conclusion: The study suggests that 6 cycles of single-agent paclitaxel maintenance therapy significantly prolongs the duration of PFS and better trends toward OS, though a large study is needed to come to a conclusion.
Keywords: Advanced epithelial ovarian cancer; maintenance paclitaxel; maintenance therapy.