Relapsed Ovarian Cancer Patients with Ascites and/or Pleural Effusion Still Benefit from Treatment: A Real-Life Study

(1) Background: Relapsed HGSOC with ascites and/or pleural effusion is a poor-prognostic population and poorly represented in clinical studies. We questioned if these patients are worth treating. In other words, if these patients received the most effective treatment, would it change the course of this disease? To our knowledge this is the first real-life study to evaluate this question in this low-survival population. (2) Methods: To tackle this question we performed a retrospective, multi-centric, real-life study, that reviewed relapsed HGSOC patients with ascites and/or pleural effusion. Our rationale was to compare the OS of two groups of patients: responders, i.e., patients who had an imagological response to treatment (complete/partial response/stable disease, RECIST criteria) versus non-responders (no response/progression upon treatment). We evaluated the predictive value of clinical variables that are available in a real-life setting (e.g., staging, chemotherapy, surgery, platinum-sensitivity). Multivariate logistic regression and survival analysis was conducted. A two-step cluster analysis SPSS tool was used for subgroup analysis. Platinum sensitivity/resistance was also analyzed, as well as multivariate and cluster analysis. (3) Results: We included 57 patients, 41.4% first line responders and 59.6% non-responders. The median OS of responders was 23 months versus 8 months in non-responders (p < 0.001). This difference was verified in platinum-sensitive (mOS 28 months vs. 8 months, p < 0.001) and platinum-resistant populations (mOS 16 months vs. 7 months, p < 0.001). Thirty-one patients reached the second line, of which only 10.3% responded to treatment. Three patients out of thirty-one who did not respond in the first line of relapse, responded in the second line. In the second line, the mOS for the responders' group vs. non-responders was 31 months versus 13 months (p = 0.02). The two step cluster analysis tool found two different subgroups with different prognoses based on overall response rate, according to consolidation chemotherapy, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, FIGO staging and surgical treatment. Cluster analysis showed that even patients with standard clinical and treatment variables associated with poor prognosis might achieve treatment response (the opposite being also true). (4) Conclusions: Our data clearly show that relapsed HGSOC patients benefit from treatment. If given an effective treatment upfront, this can lead to a ~3 times increase in mOS for these patients. Moreover, this was irrespective of patient disease and treatment characteristics. Our results highlight the urgent need for a sensitivity test to tailor treatments and improve efficacy rates in a personalized manner.