Improvement in the prognosis of ovarian cancer in the era before addition of molecular targeting therapy

Objective: The prognosis of ovarian cancer has improved because of platinum- and taxanecontainingchemotherapy. We investigated the 5-year disease-specific overall survival and prognosticfactors of patients with advanced ovarian cancer to elucidate the change in clinical courseof ovarian cancer with the advance of chemotherapy for patients who developed relapse in theera before the addition of molecular targeting therapy.Methods: We reviewed the clinical course of 134 patients with advanced ovarian cancer (FIGOStage III and IV) treated in the past 11 years (1999-2010). We classified the patients into twogroups: those who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer from 1999 to 2005 (Group A) andthose who had been diagnosed from 2006 to 2010 (Group B). We compared the 5-year diseasespecificoverall survival and median survival rates between these two groups. We also investigatedthe prognostic factors of 104 patients who developed relapse.Results: The 5-year disease-specific overall survival rate was significantly higher in Group B thanA (67.0% vs. 38.6%; P = 0.032). Chemotherapy containing pegylated liposomal doxorubicin hydrochloride,non-clear cell adenocarcinoma and intestinal resection were independent prognosticfactors.Conclusions: The induction of new chemotherapeutic drugs and the increased variation of secondorthird-line chemotherapy affected the improvement in overall survival of patients with advancedepithelial ovarian cancer.