Treatment of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer with a cis-dichloro-diammine platinum, cyclophosphamide, and bleomycin combination.

Twenty-five consecutive patients with previously untreated stage III (18) and IV (7) epithelial ovarian carcinoma underwent maximum surgical tumor reduction followed by cyclophosphamide, cisplatinum, and bleomycin chemotherapy, given 5 days every 3 weeks for a total of 6-8 courses. Patients were then submitted to second-look surgery, and complete responders to a 1-year additional chemotherapy with L phenylalanine mustard and hexamethylmelamine. The median survival is 23 months for the whole group, and 31+ months for 13 patients found in microscopically assessed complete remission (CR) at the time of second-look surgery. The possible significance of these results and of the addition of bleomycin to a well-known combination are discussed, together with the limitations of a phase II study.