Elsevier

Gynecologic Oncology

Volume 132, Issue 1, January 2014, Pages 23-27
Gynecologic Oncology

Adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy for borderline serous ovarian tumors with invasive implants

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygyno.2013.11.006Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Largest series of borderline ovarian tumors + invasive implants treated with adjuvant chemotherapy.

  • Adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy (PBC) was well tolerated.

  • Adjuvant PBC resulted in objective responses.

  • 5 year PFS and OS were encouraging at 67% and 96%, respectively.

Abstract

Background

Most borderline ovarian tumors (BOTs) are cured with surgery. However BOTs with invasive implants have a poor prognosis with a mortality of 20–40%. The benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy (CT) in this setting remains poorly defined.

Methods

Retrospective study of serous BOT + invasive implants treated with adjuvant CT.

Results

36 patients were referred with serous BOTs + invasive implants and treated with surgery and platinum-based CT between 06/1982 and 02/2011. 83% were stage III/IV. Tumors demonstrated microinvasion, micropapillary pattern or desmoplastic implants in 53%, 47% and 67% of cases, respectively. 8% had fertility-sparing surgery. Taking into account initial and completion surgeries, R0 was achieved in 84% (27/32) (NA, N = 4). The majority (72%) received a combination of platinum + taxane. 11% of patients experienced a G3/G4 toxicity. 13 of 36 (36%) patients relapsed at a median of 27.3 months after diagnosis of invasive implants. Among 12 patients with histologically confirmed relapse, 8 patients progressed with invasive disease in the form of carcinoma or invasive implants. 5 year PFS/OS were 67%/96%. Neither microinvasion, micropapillary pattern, nor desmoplastic implants predicted relapse. In cases with evaluable disease, an objective response to chemotherapy was observed in 4 of 6 patients.

Conclusion

This is the largest study of BOT with invasive implants treated with surgery and adjuvant platinum-based CT. Treatment was well tolerated and the invasive relapse rate was 22% (8/36). Although numbers are small, the objective responses suggest a possible role for adjuvant CT in BOTs with invasive implants.

Introduction

Serous borderline, or low malignant potential, ovarian tumors represent roughly 10 to 20% of serous epithelial ovarian tumors. Histologically, these tumors display greater epithelial proliferation than adenomas but lack the destructive stromal invasion that characterizes epithelial ovarian carcinomas [1]. The clinical presentation, treatment and prognosis of borderline ovarian tumors (BOTs) differ drastically from their invasive counterparts. They are typically diagnosed at an early stage (85% stage I), in younger women and are associated with an excellent clinical outcome after surgical treatment alone with 5 year overall survival rates of 95% [2], [3], [4]. Interestingly, despite the absence of stromal invasion, BOTs have the capacity to spread to the peritoneum or to pelvic and/or paraaortic lymph nodes. A proportion of serous BOTs are associated with extraovarian disease sites, but these are defined as ‘implants’ not metastases by the WHO because of their indolent nature [1]. While the vast majority of implants are non-invasive, a small subset of patients with extraovarian disease (10–15%) has invasive implants [5]. This feature has been shown by some to have a drastic impact on prognosis with a disease-associated mortality rate as high as 40% in early studies suggesting that a subset of BOTs could potentially benefit from adjuvant therapies [5]. It has now been quite clearly established that the vast majority of BOTs should be managed with surgery alone, the one exception being the subset of BOTs with invasive implants for which the NCCN 2012 updated guidelines recommend consideration of adjuvant chemotherapy (level 2B recommendation) [6]. However this remains a controversial area as no randomized studies have ever been conducted to investigate the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy in this rare subset (< 1% of epithelial ovarian tumors). We therefore conducted a retrospective study of BOTs with invasive implants treated with surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy in order to describe their clinical outcome and potentially identify prognostic factors.

Section snippets

Methods

A list of cases of serous BOT with invasive implants referred to the Institut Gustave Roussy since 1982 was obtained through a search of our institution's pathology database and computerized medical records. Cases were reviewed centrally by the same expert pathologist and only cases with invasive implants treated with surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy were included. Given that the classification of invasive implants was not clearly established until the 1990s [5], [7], all cases diagnosed

Patient baseline clinical characteristics (Table 1)

36 patients with serous BOT and invasive implants treated with surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy between June 1982 and February 2011 were identified. Fourteen percent (5/36) had a prior history of BOT with non-invasive implants. With regard to these 5 patients, two were treated with conservative surgery (cystectomy or unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy) and relapsed with invasive implants at 5 years and 14 months, respectively. The other 3 were treated non-conservatively and relapsed with invasive

Discussion

The outcome for the vast majority of patients with serous BOT is excellent with an overall survival of 95% at 5 years [4]. Most (85%) present with early stage disease and even in the case of advanced BOT, implants are usually non-invasive. A number of randomized and retrospective studies have now clearly established that there is no indication for adjuvant chemotherapy regardless of stage, lymph node involvement or ruptured primary [11], [12], [13]. However for the minority of patients who

Conflicts of interest statement

None declared.

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