Outcome of patients with recurrent adult-type granulosa cell tumors – A Taiwanese Gynecologic Oncology Group study

ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to evaluate the long-term outcome of ovarian recurrent granulosa cell tumors (GCTs) in a large series of patients treated in Taiwanese Gynecologic Oncology Group (TGOG) centers and to define the prognostic parameters for survival.Materials and methodsA retrospective multi-institutional review of patients with recurrent ovarian GCTs treated in TGOG centers was conducted. The clinical and pathological characteristics, treatment, and outcomes of patients with ovarian recurrent GCTs were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards analyses to determine the predictors for survival.ResultsA total of 44 patients from 16 medical centers were identified between January 1994 and December 2010. The median disease-free survival (DFS), postrecurrence survival, and overall survival (OS) were 61.5 months (range, 3.7–219.3 months), 55.8 months (range, 4.6–193.7 months), and 115.3 months (range, 17.2–390.6 months), respectively. In multivariate analysis, DFS (> 61.5 months versus ≤ 61.5 months, hazard ratio (HR) 0.15, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.03–0.78, p = 0.024) at the initial operation after diagnosis of relapse was the only predictor that correlated with OS.ConclusionDFS after the initial operation was the only important predictor for overall survival in patients with recurrent GCTs, regardless of treatment, suggesting that the natural behavior of the tumor is a critical factor for patients with recurrent GCTs.