Upfront intraperitoneal chemotherapy for patients with epithelial ovarian cancer: long-term follow-up of a previously published trial.

OBJECTIVE: To update previously published work on the long-term survivorship of patients with surgically debulked epithelial ovarian cancer who were treated with intraperitoneal cisplatin-based chemotherapy after initial debulking surgery during the pretaxane era. METHODS: The records of 15 ovarian cancer patients treated with i.p. cisplatin (CDDP) and either i.v. doxorubicin or i.v. cyclophosphamide from 1985-1993 were reviewed. Data on long-term survivorship, toxicity and ultimate cause of death were updated. RESULTS: Recurrence-free survival rates for all subjects were 67% at two years, 47% at five years and 40% at 10 years. Five of the 15 (33%) original patients are alive with no evidence of disease (NED) at 180, 183, 205, 228 and 228 months respectively with a median of 205 months since last treatment. Toxicity was present yet posed no long-term threat. CONCLUSION: As presented in the original paper, i.p. chemotherapy can be safely utilized in a community hospital setting. Long-term survival is possible even with suboptimal regimens of chemotherapy as compared with today's standard treatments.