Outcome of interval debulking in advanced ovarian cancer patients

Interval debulking and neoadjuvant chemotherapy have been used in management of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer for many years in order to achieve optimal residual disease and reduce surgical morbidity. The present study was conducted to evaluate the outcomes of advanced ovarian cancer patients treated with these two approaches prior to cytoreductive surgery in Chiang Mai University Hospital between January 2001 and December 2006. The medical records of 29 patients who met the criteria were retrospectively reviewed. Most had stage IIIC serous cystadenocarcinomas. We found that the 5-year progression free survival and overall survival were 10% and 22% while the median values were 13 months and 34 months, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that a suboptimal residual tumor volume was a statistically significant adverse prognostic factor for overall survival. In conclusion, interval debulking surgery and neoadjuvant chemotherapy before cytoreductive surgery lead to a more favorable outcome with advanced epithelial ovarian cancers.