Lymphovascular space invasion as a prognostic factor of epithelial ovarian cancer: a multicenter study by the FRANCOGYN group.

Background: The presence of lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) is not yet included in international recommendations neither as a prognostic factor nor as a parameter for the decision to use adjuvant chemotherapy in FIGO stage I/IIa ovarian cancer (OC).

Objective: This study set out to evaluate the impact of LVSI on Overall Survival (OS) and Recurrence-Free Survival (RFS) in patients managed for epithelial OC.

Design: Retrospective multicenter study by the research group FRANCOGYN between January 2001 and December 2018. All patients managed for epithelial OC surgery and for whom histological slides for the review of LVSI were available, were included. The characteristics of patients with LVSI (LVSI group) were compared to those without LVSI (No-LVSI group). A Cox analysis for OS and RFS analysis was performed in all the populations.

Setting: French multicenter tertiary care centers RESULTS: Over the study period, 852 patients were included in the 13 institutions. Among them, 289 patients had LVSI (33.9%). There was a significant difference in the distribution of LVSI between early and advanced stages (p  <  0.001). LVSI was an independent predictive factor for poorer Overall and Recurrence-Free Survival. LVSI affected OS (p  <  0.001) and RFS (p  <  0.001), LVSI affected OS and RFS for early stages (p  =  0.001; p  =  0.001, respectively) and also for advanced stages (p  =  0.01; p  =  0.009, respectively).

Conclusion: The presence of LVSI in epithelial ovarian epithelial tumors has an impact on OS and RFS and should be included in the routine pathology examination to adapt therapeutic management, especially for women in the early stages of the disease.