Background: Approximately 70% of women diagnosed with advanced-stage ovarian cancer experience disease recurrence. Survival data were compared between a group of recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer (rEOC) patients treated by cytoreduction and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) and a matched group of rEOC patients treated by systemic chemotherapy only (without surgery). Treatment outcome in relation to the patients' BRCA status was compared.
Methods: Twenty-seven rEOC patients treated by cytoreduction and HIPEC were selected from our database and matched (1:3) with 84 rEOC patients treated with chemotherapy only. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in the two groups were analyzed and compared.
Results: The estimated median PFS was 15 months in the HIPEC group and 6 months in the systemic chemotherapy group (P = 0.001). The median OS following HIPEC treatment has not been reached, since more than 70% of the women were alive at the time of analysis. The 5-year survival rate was significantly higher in the HIPEC treated patients compared to that of the controls (79% vs. 45%, P = 0.016). BRCA status did not affect PFS.
Conclusions: HIPEC after surgical cytoreduction in patients with rEOC appears beneficial compared to systemic chemotherapy treatment alone. The benefit is even greater in BRCA mutation carriers.
Keywords: BRCA; hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy; recurrent ovarian cancer; surgical cytoreduction.
© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.