Management of Advanced Staged Ovarian Cancer in a National Cancer Center: Comparison of the Efficacy of Primary Debulking Surgery Versus Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Background: In most cases, ovarian cancer is diagnosed at an advanced stage. The aim of this study was to determine if Primary Debulking Surgery (PDS) for women with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer is an equivalent treatment approach to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). Methods: A retrospective analysis of 214 women with stage FIGO IIIC and IV ovarian cancer was performed at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Slovenia. Women were divided into two groups based on their primary treatment. The first group was the NACT group (184 women) and the second the PDS group (30 women). The selection of the women for PDS or NACT was based on the expertise of the gynecological-oncological surgeon and the image exam results. We used the Kaplan-Meier method for calculating Overall Survival (OS) and Progression-Free Survival (PFS). The statistical analysis was performed with IBM SPSS. Results: The median OS was lower in the NACT group than in the PDS group, 25 months (95% CI 20.6-29.5) and 46 months (95% CI 32.9-62.1), respectively. The PFS in the NACT group was 8 months (95% CI 6.4-9.5) and 18 months (95% CI 12.5-23.4) in the PDS group. For women treated with PDS the 5-year survival rate was 36.7% and 20.1% in the NACT group. Conclusion: In this study, the best survival results were observed in women treated with PDS, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. If a woman is not suitable for surgery, NACT doubles the chance of a complete gross resection. Despite higher rates of complete gross resection after NACT, women treated with PDS (complete gross resection or optimal surgery) had higher OS.