Patterns of recurrence and role of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II–IV serous ovarian borderline tumors

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate patterns of recurrence and prognostic factors as well as the role of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage II–IV ovarian SBT.MethodsWe performed a retrospective review of all patients with advanced-stage SBT treated at our institution from 1979 to 2008. Advanced stage was defined as FIGO stage II–IV. Progression-free survival (PFS) was defined as the time of diagnosis to time of recurrence/death or last follow-up. Kaplan–Meier method was used to report the PFS rate.ResultsA total of 80 stage II–IV patients were identified, of which 15 (19%) were stage II, 63 (79%) were stage III, and 2 (2.5%) were stage IV. The site of metastasis was pelvis in 15 patients (19%), omentum in 29 patients (36%), isolated lymph nodes in 2 patients (2.5%), lung in 1 patient (1%), axilla in 1 patient (1%), and multiple sites in 32 patients (40%). With a median follow-up of 4.8 years, 17 patients (21%) developed recurrent disease. Only patients with metastasis to the omentum or multiple sites developed recurrent disease. Of the 65 stage III/IV patients, 17 patients (26%) received adjuvant chemotherapy following diagnosis. The 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 89.9% (95% CI, 77.3–95.7) for patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy compared with 70.6% (95% CI, 43.1–86.6) for patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy.ConclusionsWhile advanced-stage ovarian SBT generally has a good prognosis, nearly 21% of patients develop recurrent disease with intermediate follow-up. It is unclear from these data if adjuvant chemotherapy influenced PFS.