Intraperitoneal chromic phosphate P 32 as salvage therapy for persistent carcinoma of the ovary after surgical restaging

From 1977 through 1984, 23 patients with persistent epithelial carcinomas of the ovary received intraperitoneal instillation with chromic phosphate P 32 suspension as salvage therapy after second- or third-look laparotomy. Patients received a median 10 cycles of chemotherapy before chromic phosphate P 32. Disease consisted of microscopic residual only in 10 patients (43%), macroscopic residual that was completely resected in eight (35%), and macroscopic residual disease in which the largest diameter was less than 0.5 cm in five patients (22%). Ten patients are free of disease at 13 to 94 months after chromic phosphate P 32 salvage therapy. Life table survival is 75% at 2 years and 57% at 4 years, with a disease-free survival rate of 54% at 2 years and 27% at 4 years. Patients with no gross residual disease had median disease-free survival of 27 months versus 9 months for patients with macroscopic residual disease (p greater than 0.1). Only three patients (13%) developed surgical bowel complications related to chromic phosphate P 32. Compared with previous studies, intraperitoneal chromic phosphate P 32 as salvage therapy for patients with minimal residual ovarian carcinoma defined at secondary surgical evaluation results in comparable survival and fewer complications than does salvage abdominopelvic irradiation and should be considered as an option to further chemotherapy in selected patients.