Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia: treatment outcomes from a single institutional experience

To report the outcomes of gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) at a single institution and to determine the factors affecting response to chemotherapy and survival.

From 1979-2010, we retrospectively reviewed the data of 221 patients treated at our center. GTN Patients were assigned to low-risk (score ≤6) or high-risk (score ≥7) based on the WHO risk factor scoring system. Overall survival (OS) probabilities were estimated using Kaplan-Meier method. Logistic regression was applied to study the impact of different factors on the response to initial therapy.

Patients' OS rate was 97 %. Median age at diagnosis was 37 year. 131 (59 %) patients had low-risk and 88 (40 %) cases had high-risk GTN. Complete remission rates to initial chemotherapy in low-risk group were 53 % and 87 % for single-agent methotrexate or dactinomycin, respectively. In high-risk group, 94 % achieved complete remission to initial chemotherapy with etoposide, methotrexate, dactinomycin, cyclophosphamide, and vincristine (EMA-CO). Etoposide, cisplatin, and dactinomycin as primary therapy in high-risk patients was successful in 70 %, while bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (BEP) was successful in 53 % of cases. Salvage chemotherapy, surgical intervention or radiation therapy resulted in overall complete remission of 90 % in low-risk and 73 % in high-risk groups. Factors associated with resistance to initial chemotherapy were advanced-stage III/IV (p = 0.005), metastatic site other than lung or vagina (p = 0.005) and high-risk prognostic score (p = 0.05). OS was significantly influenced by the type of antecedent pregnancy (molar 98 % vs. others 93 %; p = 0.04), FIGO stage (I, II 100 % vs. III, IV 94 %; p = 0.02), score (low-risk 100 % vs. high-risk 92 %; p = 0.01), and site of metastasis (lung/vagina 98 % vs. others 85 %; p = 0.002).

GTNs have excellent prognosis if properly treated at experienced centers. Single-agent dactinomycin seems more effective for low-risk GTN. EMA-CO remains the preferred primary treatment regimen for high-risk group. The excellent outcome reflects the success of salvage therapy.