Purpose: To assess whether the interval from primary surgery to the start of taxane- plus platinum-based chemotherapy has any impact on the clinical outcome of advanced ovarian cancer patients.
Patients and methods: The study was conducted on 313 patients who underwent surgery followed by taxane- plus platinum-based chemotherapy. The median follow-up of survivors was 30.7 months (range, 6 to 109 months).
Results: The 25%, 50%, and 75% quantiles of intervals from surgery to the start of chemotherapy were 11, 21, and 31 days, respectively. After the sixth cycle, 102 patients achieved a pathologic complete response at second-look surgery and 98 obtained a clinical complete response but were not submitted to second-look surgery. Taking into consideration the best assessed response, a complete (either clinical or pathologic) response was found in 200 patients. Residual disease (< or = 1 v > 1 cm; P < .0001) and ascites (absent v present; P = .003) were independent predictive factors for achieving a complete response, whereas residual disease (P = .001) and stage (IIc to III v IV; P = .04) were independent prognostic variables for survival. Conversely, statistical analyses failed to detect significant differences in complete response rates and survival among patients with an interval from surgery to chemotherapy shorter than 11 days, 12 to 21 days, 22 to 31 days, and longer than 31 days.
Conclusion: The interval from surgery to the start of taxane- plus platinum-based chemotherapy seems to have neither a predictive value for response to treatment nor a prognostic relevance for survival of advanced ovarian cancer patients.