Recurrent of ovarian cancer with lymph node involvement: surgery or chemotherapy? Retrospective cohort study

Aim. To give a comparative analysis of long-term results of treatment of patients after surgical treatment in combination with systemic chemotherapy with a control group of patients who received only second-line chemotherapy without surgical treatment for recurrent ovarian cancer (OC) with lymph node (LN) involvement, as well as the search of prognostic factors that favorably affect progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).

Materials and methods. The retrospective analysis included patients under the age of 75 after surgical treatment or after only second-line chemotherapy without surgery for isolated recurrence in the LN or a combined form of recurrence of OC at Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology from 2005 to 2020. All patients had previously received combined treatment for primary OC. Exclusion criteria: absence of LN involvement in the recurrence of OC, primary multiple malignant tumors, relapses of non-epithelial ovarian tumors, the presence of concomitant pathology in the decompensation phase and lack of information about the treatment received for the recurrence of OC and the date of subsequent progression, death or last observation. The primary endpoint of the study is PFS and the secondary endpoint is OS.

Results. The final analysis included 214 patients, who were subsequently divided into 2 main groups: the study group consisted of patients (n=123; 57.5%) who underwent repeated cytoreduction + systemic chemotherapy, and the control group included patients (n=91; 42.5%) who received only second-line chemotherapy. In the general population of patients, the median platinum-free interval was 14.0 months. Platinum-sensitive recurrence of OC developed in 88.3% (189/214) of patients, and platinum-resistant recurrence was observed in 11.7% (25/214) of cases. In the study group, complete repeated cytoreduction was achieved in 70.7% (87/123) of patients, and incomplete – in 29.3% (36/123) of patients. All 91 patients in the control group received second-line chemotherapy in the planned volume. The vast majority of patients underwent second-line platinum-containing chemotherapy – 87.9% (188/214) of patients. The median follow-up was 33.0 (range 0.7–174.0) months. Long-term results in the complete cytoreduction group were significantly higher – median PFS and OS were 30.0 months and 87.0 months, respectively, however, in the incomplete cytoreduction group, long-term results were statistically significantly worse: median PFS and OS were 10.0 months and 29.0 months versus 12.0 months and 36.0 months, respectively, in the control group of patients. Surgical treatment in combination with chemotherapy for platinum-resistant recurrence of OC did not improve long-term results of treatment: the median PFS was the same in both groups – 7.0 months, and the median OS was 24.0 months versus 21.0 months in the control group (p=0.372).

Conclusion. Only complete repeated cytoreduction in combination with systemic chemotherapy leads to an improvement in long-term results of treatment compared with incomplete cytoreduction and only second-line systemic chemotherapy. Incomplete repeated cytoreduction, despite combination with systemic chemotherapy, worsens the prognosis and does not improve the results of drug therapy alone in patients with platinum-sensitive recurrence of OC. Combined treatment (surgery + chemotherapy) for platinum-resistant recurrence of OC does not improve long-term results of treatment.