Chemotherapy alone for patients 75 years and older with epithelial ovarian cancer-is interval cytoreductive surgery still needed?

Background: Patients ≥75 years old with ovarian cancer experience high perioperative morbidity, but recruitment into prospective trials to assess the role of surgery continues to be challenging. Objective: To compare overall survival for patients ≥75 years old with ovarian cancer after chemotherapy alone vs neoadjuvant chemotherapy with interval cytoreductive surgery. Study

Design: Data were extracted from the National Cancer Data Base from 2004 to 2014. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards models were used for statistical analyses.

Results: Of 1661 patients (median age: 79 years), most were white (88%) and had stage III-IV disease (95%), and 51% had serous histology. Of those who did not receive primary surgery, 58% had chemotherapy alone and the remainder had neoadjuvant chemotherapy with interval cytoreductive surgery. The use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with interval cytoreductive surgery increased from 28% to 50% in years 2004-2007 to 2012-2014 (P<.001). Compared with neoadjuvant chemotherapy with interval cytoreductive surgery, chemotherapy-only patients were older (80 vs 78 years; P<.001) and had more advanced stage disease (98% vs 91%; P<.001). The 5-year overall survival of the entire study group was 14%; those who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy with interval cytoreductive surgery had overall survival of 25% compared with only 7% in chemotherapy alone group (P<.001). In multivariable analysis, neoadjuvant chemotherapy with interval cytoreductive surgery (hazard ratio, 0.44; 95% confidence interval, 0.36-0.54; P<.001) was an independent predictor for improved survival. Older (80-84 years) age (hazard ratio, 1.35; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-1.63; P=.002), advanced (stage III-IV) disease (hazard ratio; 2.06, 95% confidence interval, 1.37-3.09; P=.001), and clear cell histology (hazard ratio; 2.17, 95% confidence interval, 1.10-4.28; P=.03) portended for worse outcome.

Conclusion: Patients ≥75 years with ovarian cancer old have an overall poor prognosis. Receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by interval cytoreductive surgery is associated with greater overall survival compared to chemotherapy alone.