Side Effects from Cancer Therapies and Perspective of 1044 Long-Term Ovarian Cancer Survivors-Results of Expression VI-Carolin Meets HANNA-Holistic Analysis of Long-Term Survival with Ovarian Cancer: The International NOGGO, ENGOT, and GCIG Survey.

The aim of this survey was to increase the knowledge on the characteristics and health concerns of long-term survivors (LTS; survival > 5 years) after ovarian cancer in order to tailor follow-up care. This international survey was initiated by the NOGGO and was made available to members of ENGOT and GCIG. The survey is anonymous and consists of 68 questions regarding sociodemographic, medical (cancer) history, health concerns including distress, long-term side effects, and lifestyle. For this analysis, 1044 LTS from 14 countries were recruited. In total, 58% were diagnosed with FIGO stage III/IV ovarian cancer and 43.4% developed recurrent disease, while 26.0% were receiving cancer treatment at the time of filling in the survey. LTS who survived 5-10 years self-estimated their health status as being significantly worse than LTS who survived more than 10 years (p = 0.034), whereas distress also remained high 10 years after cancer diagnosis. Almost half of the cohort (46.1%) reported still having symptoms, which were mainly lymphedema (37.7%), fatigue (23.9%), pain (21.6%), polyneuropathy (16.9%), gastrointestinal problems (16.6%), and memory problems (15.5%). Almost all patients (94.2%) regularly received follow-up care. Specialized survivorship care with a focus on long-term side effects, lifestyle, and prevention should be offered beyond the typical five years of follow-up care.

Risk of endometrial cancer in asymptomatic postmenopausal patients with thickened endometrium: data from the FAME-Endo study: an observational register study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the risk for endometrial cancer (EC) in a large series of asymptomatic patients with thickened endometrium at ultrasound examination based on previously published data of a theoretical cohort. METHODS: In a prospective register study, a total of 1024 women with thickened endometrium in ultrasound examination undergoing histological diagnosis by dilation, hysteroscopy and curettage were evaluated. 124 patients were excluded due to current medication with tamoxifen and/or presence of HNPCC leaving 900 patients for further analysis. RESULTS: Mean [standard deviation (SD)] age of patients was 65.6 (8.6) years. Mean (SD) endometrial thickness was 11.9 (5.8) mm. 32 and 6 cases of EC and complex endometrial hyperplasia with atypia were found, respectively. In the univariate analysis, a statistically significant association between endometrial thickness, current use of antihypertensive medication, number of deliveries, and the presence of endometrial fluid in preoperative vaginal ultrasound (p < 0.05) with EC was found. A multivariate logistic regression model incorporating these parameters showed a statistically significant independent association of endometrial thickness, number of deliveries, and the presence of endometrial fluid in preoperative vaginal ultrasound (p < 0.05), but not current use of antihypertensive medication, with EC. Using a cut-off of the endometrial thickness of > 11 mm, the risk for "EC alone" and "EC and complex endometrial hyperplasia with atypia combined" was found to be 6.7% and 7.9%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our data compare favorably to a theoretical cohort suggesting a clinically reasonable cut-off of > 11 mm endometrial thickness to discriminate between "normal" and "pathological". The data regarding "risk for endometrial cancer" can be used for counseling affected women.

Prognostic Value of Serum Creatinine Levels in Patients with Epithelial Ovarian Cancer.

AIM: To evaluate preoperative serum creatinine level as a prognostic parameter in patients with primary epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a retrospective cohort study, serum levels of creatinine were evaluated in 498 patients with EOC. Data were extracted from our prospectively maintained database. Results were correlated with clinicopathological parameters and patient survival. RESULTS: The mean pre-therapeutic serum creatinine level in patients with EOC was 0.84±0.40 mg/dI. A serum creatinine level of 1.2 mg/dl or higher was found in 22 (4.4%) patients and associated with poor survival. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, the serum creatinine level was a significant independent prognostic parameter of overall survival. CONCLUSION: The preoperative serum level of creatinine may be useful as an additional independent prognostic parameter in patients with EOC.

Compartment syndrome after gynecologic laparoscopy: systematic review of the literature and establishment of normal values for postoperative serum creatine kinase and myoglobin levels.

PURPOSE: To evaluate published evidence in the literature on compartment syndrome (CS) in association with gynecologic surgery and to establish postoperative normal values for serum creatine kinase (CK) and myoglobin. METHODS: The present study consists of a case report of a patient with CS, a systematic review including 37 studies and 86 patients with CS, and a retrospective cohort study of 300 patients undergoing various types of laparoscopy for benign or malignant diseases in order to establish postoperative normal values. RESULTS: We report on a patient with early-stage ovarian cancer, who developed CS after laparoscopic surgery with massively elevated serum CK and myoglobin levels, i.e., 1109 U/L and 18151 µg/L, respectively. In our systematic review, median serum CK and myoglobin levels among women with CS were 19,223 (177-27,412) U/L and 1248 (285-1360) µg/L, respectively. In our cohort study, the median postoperative serum CK and myoglobin levels were 68 (14-1576) U/L and 45 (14-1040) µg/L, respectively. The 95th and 99th percentile of serum CK and myoglobin levels were 158 and 391.5 U/L, and 152.3 and 298.9 µg/L, respectively. CONCLUSION: Markedly elevated postoperative serum levels of CK and myoglobin levels might raise the suspicion for CS and could therefore aid in the rapid diagnosis of CS.

One-stop clinical assessment of risk for endometrial hyperplasia (OSCAR-Endo): a fast-track protocol for evaluating endometrial pathologies.

PURPOSE: To evaluate a one-stop clinical assessment of risk for assessing endometrial pathologies (OSCAR-Endo), consisting of a fast-track protocol with hysteroscopy, dilation and curettage (D&C) with intraoperative frozen section analysis of the removed tissue in cases of hysteroscopic suspicion of malignancy. METHODS: In this prospective clinical trial, a total of 304 consecutive women with sonographically suspected endometrial hyperplasia and/or postmenopausal bleeding, underwent D&C with intraoperative frozen section analysis between May 2013 and September 2015. Based on the results of the hysteroscopy and/or frozen section, the OSCAR-Endo score was reported: negative, when no frozen section was regarded necessary or the frozen section yielded a negative result; equivocal, when the frozen section reported an equivocal result; positive, when frozen section reported either complex hyperplasia with atypia or cancer. RESULTS: Frozen sections were required by the surgeons in 59 (19.4%) of cases. When compared with the final histology after D&C, frozen section showed a sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and overall test accuracy of 91.3, 100, 100, 94.1, and 96.3% for predicting malignant disease, respectively. The OSCAR-Endo score showed a sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and overall test accuracy of 84, 100, 100, 98.6, and 98.7% for predicting malignant disease, respectively. CONCLUSION: The OSCAR-Endo protocol is easy to perform in daily clinical practice reaching an excellent test accuracy. It helps in immediate postoperative counseling of affected patients. Clinical Trial Registration http://www.clinicaltrials.gov ; NCT01961102.

Plasma fibrinogen levels in patients with benign and malignant ovarian tumors.

OBJECTIVE: Plasma fibrinogen is a key acute phase protein and known to be elevated in ovarian cancer. We aimed to investigate the association between plasma fibrinogen and malignant and benign ovarian tumors. METHODS: In a retrospective, single-center study, we evaluated preoperative plasma fibrinogen levels in 471 patients with benign and in 224 patients with malignant (borderline ovarian tumor [BOT]: n=36, epithelial ovarian cancer [EOC]: n=188) ovarian tumors. The association between preoperative plasma fibrinogen levels and clinico-pathological parameters was investigated. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to identify an independent association. RESULTS: Mean (standard deviation) preoperative plasma fibrinogen levels in patients with benign ovarian tumors, BOT, and invasive ovarian cancers were 346.7 (99.7), 372.8 (114), and 472.6 (148.4) mg/dL, respectively (p<0.001). Within the EOC cohort, patients with advanced stage disease had higher plasma fibrinogen levels (485.5 [151.3] mg/dL) than patients with early stage disease (430.9 [130.3] mg/dL; p=0.03). In a multivariate model plasma fibrinogen was identified to be independently associated with the presence of BOT and EOC. In the subgroup of patients <50 years, plasma fibrinogen levels remained independently associated with malignant ovarian tumors in CA 125 positive and negative patients. CONCLUSION: Plasma fibrinogen levels are independently associated with malignant ovarian tumors. Plasma fibrinogen levels showed an independent association with malignant ovarian tumors in the subgroup of patients <50 years, in whom differential diagnosis of ovarian tumors is particularly challenging.