Prognostic significance of postoperative morbidities in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and delayed primary surgical debulking

Abstract

Background: To examine the prognostic significance of postoperative morbidities in patients with ovarian cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and interval surgical debulking.

Methods: Retrospective chart reviews of all patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and interval debulking were performed from 1999 to 2002. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the distributions of important clinical variables. Logistic regression was used to identify statistically significant predictors of postoperative morbidities. Cox regression was used to model time to first clinical progression. Survivals were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared with the log rank test. P < .05 was considered to be statistically significant.

Results: Fifty-eight patients were treated with neoadjuvant platinum-taxane combination chemotherapy. Major surgical complications were observed in four patients (6.8%). There were no perioperative deaths. The presence of concurrent medical comorbidities was associated with the development of significant postoperative morbidities (P = .038). Cox regression showed any macroscopic residual disease (P = .04) and the presence of significant postoperative morbidities (odds ratio, 4.7, 95% confidence interval, 1.8-12.7, P = .002) to be predictive of a shorter progression-free interval.

Conclusions: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by interval surgical debulking carried a low risk for postoperative morbidity. The adverse influence of marked postoperative morbidity on progression-free survival needs further study.