Limited efficacy of platinum-based adjuvant treatment on the outcome of borderline ovarian tumors

Adjuvant treatment of borderline ovarian tumors (BOT) remains highly debatable. This article evaluates the benefits of platinum-based adjuvant treatment in patients with BOT. The PubMed and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched for articles using the terms ((Borderline) OR (low malignant potential) AND (ovarian)) AND ((tumor) OR (cancer)) AND ((follow-up) OR (survival) OR (treatment) OR (chemotherapy) OR (adjuvant treatment)). We identified 31 articles including 4965 patients. Together, 592 patients presented non-invasive-, 244 invasive- and 77 unspecified implants. Central pathological examination was performed in 23 studies. Nine studies included more than 90% stage I patients, while 11 included only advanced stage patients. Nineteen studies reported patients undergoing complete cytoreduction, ten reported response rates and eight compared survival outcomes. All studies provided information regarding either mortality or recurrence rates. A meta-analysis of the 13 studies providing separate mortality data for both treatment groups, including 2206 women, favored surgical treatment only (OR = 7.44; 95% CI = 3.39–16.32; p < 0.0005) albeit with moderate heterogeneity of the studies (I2 = 35.0%) but no asymmetry (Egger's test p = 0.44). Regarding survival data, 4 studies reported no difference between groups. In the adjuvant setting, 4 reported worse outcome and 1 reported a nonsignificant trend to worse outcome. At present, there is no evidence to support the use of adjuvant treatment in patients with BOT.