One hundred sixty-eight patients treated at Hacettepe Hospital between
1969-1993 with metastatic ovarian tumors constituted 21.5% of al mali
gnant ovarian neoplasms. Primary tumors were endometrial (51), breast
(27), colorectal (18), and stomach cancer (17), lymphoma (14), sarcoma
of the uterus (13), undetermined (11), tumors of the appendix (6) and
ileum (4), carcinoma of the cervix (4), and gestational trophoblastic
neoplasia (3). Overall 5-year and median survivals were 20.0% and 26.
8 months, respectively. While worse prognoses were seen in gastric can
cer and undetermined tumors followed by colorectal cancer, best surviv
al figures were observed in endometrial cancer patients. A trend towar
d a better survival was seen with the advancement of the operation fro
m bilateral salpingooophorectomy and/or biopsy to total abdominal hyst
erectomy, bilateral salpingooophorectomy, total omentectomy and pelvic
and paraaortic lymphadenectomy with debulking. Multivariate analysis
identified the primary site, grade, laterality of involvement, type of
surgery and adjuvant therapy status as significant prognostic paramet
ers. Maximal surgical effort followed by adjuvant therapy might at lea
st have short term survival benefit in certain types metastatic to the
ovaries. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.