Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology Advance Access originally published online on May 27, 2008
Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology 2008 38(6):445-450; doi:10.1093/jjco/hyn034
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Are Three Additional Cycles of Chemotherapy Useful in Patients with Advanced-stage Epithelial Ovarian Cancer After a Complete Response to Six Cycles of Intravenous Adjuvant Paclitaxel and Carboplatin?
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
For reprints and all correspondence: Noh-Hyun Park, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University, 28 Yungun-Dong, Chongno-Gu, Seoul 110-744, Republic of Korea. E-mail: pnhkhr{at}snu.ac.kr
Received December 17, 2007; accepted April 7, 2008
Background: To evaluate the efficacy of three additional cycles of chemotherapy in patients with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Stage III or IV, who achieved a complete response after six cycles of intravenous adjuvant paclitaxel/carboplatin after surgery.
Methods: The clinical data of 94 patients with complete response after six cycles of adjuvant paclitaxel/carboplatin after surgery between January 1997 and March 2007 were reviewed retrospectively. Three additional cycles using the same chemotherapy were administered to 57 patients as consolidation chemotherapy (Group 1). Thirty-seven patients without the additional cycles served as controls (Group 2). Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated using the Kaplan–Meier method with the log-rank test. The importance of consolidation chemotherapy as a prognostic factor affecting survival was examined using the Cox's proportional hazard analysis. The incidence of chemotherapy-induced hematological toxicities was compared between the two groups using chi-square test.
Results: Median DFS and mean OS were not significantly different between the two groups (15 versus 22 months, P = 0.703; 69 versus 73 months, P = 0.891, respectively). Consolidation chemotherapy was not a prognostic factor of survival although optimal debulking surgery and lower value of serum CA-125 levels after six cycles of the chemotherapy were prognostic factors improving DFS (P < 0.01). Grade 3 or 4 leukopenia was more common in patients treated with consolidation chemotherapy than in those not treated (50.9 versus 21.6%, P = 0.004).
Conclusion: Consolidation chemotherapy using paclitaxel/carboplatin may be inefficient and relatively toxic to advanced-stage epithelial ovarian cancer patients with complete response to six cycles of the same chemotherapy after surgery.
Key Words: consolidation chemotherapy paclitaxel carboplatin ovarian cancer
Presented at the 15th International Meeting of The European Society of Gynaecological Oncology, October 29, 2007