Cytoreductive surgery plus HIPEC in platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer patients: a case-control study on survival in patients with two year follow-up.

Objectives: To compare survival data in platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer patients submitted to secondary cytoreduction (SCR) plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal intraoperative chemotherapy (HIPEC) (Cases) and a similar group of women not experiencing HIPEC (Controls).

Methods: Case-control study, matching 30 Cases with 37 Controls, with at least 24 months of follow-up.

Results: Groups were comparable for all characteristics, except for a higher proportion of patients with single-nodule relapses is the Controls (19 vs. 6; p=0.011). Median follow-up time was 46 months in the Cases and 36 months in the Controls. Twenty patients (66.6%) experienced secondary recurrence in the Cases and 37 women (100%) in the Controls (p=0.001). Moreover, 7 (23.3%) and 23 (62.2%) patients died of disease in the Cases and Controls respectively (p=0.003). The duration of secondary response was 26 months in the Cases and 15 months in the Controls (p=0.004).

Conclusions: The combination of SCR and HIPEC seems to improve survival rate in patients suffering from platinum-sensitive EOC recurrence with respect to no-HIPEC treatments. This result further supports the need of a randomized trial.