Borderline ovarian tumors and extended patient follow-up: an individual institution's experience.

Introduction: Borderline tumors of the ovary (BOT) comprise nearly 20% of all ovarian malignancies and are associated with a favorable prognosis. However, since these lesions can present with malignant features and recur, a further evaluation of appropriate patient management and long-term follow-up is warranted.

Methods: We report a physician group's retrospective experience treating BOT patients at a single institution. Patient demographics, disease pathology, treatment type (surgery, chemotherapy), and patient surveillance (e.g., disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival, follow-up via CA-125/radiology/physical exam) data were reviewed in all cases.

Results: In the present study, 78 BOT patients treated from April 2001 until February 2009 were identified and confirmed via pathologic diagnosis. The majority (87%) underwent surgery, although nearly 13% of patients also received adjuvant chemotherapy. In the study population, 12% of the patients developed progressive disease, which was primarily detected via CA-125 and physical exam/disease symptomatology. DFS for these patients was 38 months. Recurrent disease was significantly related to the administration of chemotherapy (P = 0.0024) and prolonged time since initial treatment (P < 0.001).

Discussion: Since BOT can be aggressive and eventually recur, continued (i.e., long-term) surveillance with CA-125 evaluation and physical examination should be considered for optimal patient follow-up.