ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study are to investigate the actual time from primary surgery for epithelial ovarian cancer (OC) to initiation of chemotherapy (TI) amongst Danish women in 2005-2006, and to compare the survival for groups with early initiation (≤median TI) and late initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy (>median TI). METHODS: All Danish women who underwent surgery for OC in the period 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2006 and recorded in the Danish Gynaecological Cancer Database (DGCD) were included. The five-year survival was estimated overall and by TI exposure. The Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to compute the adjusted hazard ratio (HR). RESULTS: The median TI was 32days (25-75% quartile: 24days; 41days). The strongest prognostic factors for death were residual tumour and the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FIGO) stage. The unadjusted HR for death in patients with TI>32days compared with TI≤32days was 0.85 (95% CI: 0.70; 1.04), p-value 0.12. When adjusted for residual tumour and FIGO-stage the HR was 1.13 (95% CI: 0.92; 1.39), p-value 0.26. The overall five-year survival was 42.8%, (95% CI: 38.9%; 46.5%). CONCLUSIONS: This nationwide population-based cohort study revealed a non-significant increased risk of death for patients with TI>32days compared with the reference TI≤32days. The strongest prognostic factors were residual tumour after surgery and FIGO-stage. The overall five-year survival was 42.8% (95% CI: 38.9%; 46.5%).
