Splenectomy and surgical cytoreduction in epithelial ovarian cancer: a review

Surgical cytoreduction and platinum/taxane combination chemotherapy are the mainstay for the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer patients. In order to minimise the tumour mass before chemotherapy, cytoreductive surgery is usually performed first. Currently, a splenectomy is included as part of surgical cytoreduction in epithelial ovarian cancer, but it is rarely performed. A splenectomy is also performed as part of secondary cytoreduction surgery. Although there are many reports on surgical techniques, safety and associated clinical outcomes of a splenectomy as a standard adjunct of ovarian cytoreductive surgery, most evidence is from case(s) reports, with only a few studies. Thus, we conducted a review of the literature on this unusual procedure in the context of primary and secondary cytoreduction of epithelial ovarian cancer to assess the published evidence for its efficacy and safety.