Background: Ovarian cancer continues to be the leading cause of death due to gynecologic malignancies and most patients still present with advanced disease. In the present study we evaluated long-term survival and prognostic factors in patients with stage IV ovarian cancer.
Patients and methods: The charts of 62 consecutive women with FIGO stage IV epithelial ovarian cancer were reviewed.
Results: Chemotherapy was the only factor associated with longer survival. Three patients (5%) survived for longer than 5 years. One died of disease at 6.3 years and two are alive without evidence of disease at 12.4 and 14.9 years, respectively.
Conclusion: Survival seemed to correlate with the possibility of administering chemotherapy. Patients with verified stage IV ovarian cancer, in whom due to the initial tumor load, operative extent and concomitant illness, the possibility of postoperative chemotherapy administration seems questionable, might be considered for primary chemotherapy followed by surgery.