The Poor Prognosis of Acquired Secondary Platinum Resistance in Ovarian Cancer Patients

The goal of this study was to evaluate response to treatment and survival in epithelial ovarian cancer patients with acquired secondary platinum resistance (SPR) compared to patients with primary platinum resistance (PPR).

Patients were categorized as PPR (patients with disease recurrence occurring during or <6 months after completing first-line platinum-based chemotherapy) and SPR (patients with previously platinum-sensitive disease that developed platinum resistance on subsequent treatments). Clinico-pathological variables and treatment outcomes were compared.

Of the 118 patients included in this study, 60 had PPR and 58 developed SPR. The SPR women had a significantly higher rate of optimal debulking during their upfront and interval operations, significantly lower CA-125 levels during their primary treatment, and a significantly higher complete and partial response rate to primary chemotherapy. Once platinum resistance appeared, no significant difference in survival was observed between the two groups. The median PFS was 2 months in the PPR group and 0.83 months in the SPR group (p = 0.085). Also, no significant difference was found in post-platinum-resistant relapse survival, with a median of 17.63 months in the PPR and 20.26 months in the SPR group (p = 0.515).

Platinum resistance is an important prognostic factor in women with EOC. Patients with SPR acquire the same poor treatment outcome as with PPR. There is a great need for future research efforts to discover novel strategies and biological treatments to reverse resistance and improve survival.