PROGNOSTIC FACTORS AND ADJUVANT TREATMENT IN EARLY EPITHELIAL OVARIAN-CANCER

Four hundred and ten patients with epithelial ovarian cancer FIGO stag es I and II were registered by a Danish multicenter study group (The D anish Ovarian Cancer Group - DACOVA). Two-thirds were stage I, the mos t frequent substage was Iai which was the classification in 27%. Five- year survival for stage I was 72%, and 38% for stage II. Multivariate analysis showed that age, stage, residual tumor, histologic grade and adjuvant treatment had prognostic value. For stage, three significantl y different groups could be identified: (1) stage Iai, (2) stage Iaii- Ic, and (3) stage II. Histologic grade showed a significant survival d ifference between all grades. Adjuvant treatment had a moderate but si gnificant impact on survival. Patients in stage Iai had a good surviva l with surgery alone and will probably not benefit from adjuvant thera py. Adjuvant treatment improved survival for the remaining patients in stages I and II without residual tumor. A difference between treatmen t modalities was not observed. However, the data need to be confirmed by a randomized trial. Patients in stage II with residual tumor should be treated as stage III.