abstract: Continued chemotherapy after complete response to primary therapy among women with advanced ovarian cancer (meta-analysis)

CONCLUSIONS

Although individual studies have not yet convincingly shown a survival advantage with maintenance chemotherapy in OC, this meta-analysis demonstrates that continued chemotherapy after completion of primary therapy for OC improves PFS and OS. Benefits are greatest in patients with advanced stage OC who reach complete clinical or pathologic response after primary therapy.

Ranking prestige of medical diseases | KevinMD.com blogger + link to the study abstract Album/Westin authors

Note: the ranking list includes ovarian cancer but interestingly not breast

Soc Sci Med. 2008 Jan;66(1):182-8. Epub 2007 Sep 12.

Do diseases have a prestige hierarchy? A survey among physicians and medical students.

Album D, Westin S.

University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. dag.album@sosiologi.uio.no

Abstract

Surveys have shown that the prestige of medical specialities is ordered hierarchically. We investigate whether similar tacit agreement in the medical community also applies to diseases, since such rankings can affect priority settings in medical practice. A cross-sectional survey was performed in three samples of physicians and medical students in Norway in 2002. A questionnaire was sent to 305 senior doctors (response rate, 79%), 500 general practitioners (response rate, 65%) and 490 final-year medical students (response rate, 64%). Outcome measures were ratings on a 1-9 scale of the prestige these respondents believed most health personnel would accord to a sample set of 38 different diseases as well as 23 medical specialities. Both diseases and specialities were clearly and consistently ranked according to prestige. Myocardial infarction, leukaemia and brain tumour were among the highest ranked, and fibromyalgia and anxiety neurosis were among the lowest. Among specialities, neurosurgery and thoracic surgery were accorded the highest rank, and geriatrics and dermatovenerology the lowest. Our interpretation of the data is that diseases and specialities associated with technologically sophisticated, immediate and invasive procedures in vital organs located in the upper parts of the body are given high prestige scores, especially where the typical patient is young or middle-aged. At the other end, low prestige scores are given to diseases and specialities associated with chronic conditions located in the lower parts of the body or having no specific bodily location, with less visible treatment procedures, and with elderly patients.

abstract: (repost) Differences in tumor type in low-stage versus high-stage ovarian carcinomas

Int J Gynecol Pathol. 2010
Köbel M, Kalloger SE, Huntsman DG, Santos JL, Swenerton KD, Seidman JD, Gilks CB; Cheryl Brown (ovarian cancer survivour/deceased) Ovarian Cancer Outcomes Unit of the British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver BC.
Department of Pathology, University of Calgary, Calgary AB, Canada T2N 2T9. martin.kobel@cls.ab.ca


Abstract

Although there are recognized differences in the type of ovarian carcinomas between those tumors diagnosed at low versus high stage, there is a lack of data on stage distribution of ovarian carcinomas diagnosed according to the current histopathologic criteria from large population-based cohorts. We reviewed full slide sets of 1009 cases of 2555 patients diagnosed with ovarian carcinoma that were referred to the British Columbia Cancer Agency over a 16-year period (1984 to 2000).
On the basis of the reviewed cases we extrapolated the distribution of tumor type in low-stage (I/II) and high-stage (III/IV) tumors. We then compared the frequencies with those seen in a large hospital practice.
The overall frequency of tumor types was as follows: high-grade serous-68.1%, clear-cell-12.2%, endometrioid-11.3%, mucinous-3.4%, low-grade serous-3.4%, rare types-1.6%. High-grade serous carcinomas accounted for 35.5% of stage I/II tumors and 87.7% of stage III/IV tumors.
In contrast, clear-cell (26.2% vs. 4.5%), endometrioid (26.6% vs. 2.5%), and mucinous (7.5% vs. 1.2%) carcinomas were relatively more common among the low-stage versus high-stage tumors.
This distribution was found to be very similar in 410 consecutive cases from the Washington Hospital Center. The distribution of ovarian carcinoma types differs significantly in patients with low-stage versus high-stage ovarian carcinoma when contemporary diagnostic criteria are used, with consistent results seen in 2 independent case series. These findings reflect important biological differences in the behavior of the major tumor types, with important clinical implications.

Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Is a Promising ... [Mol Cancer Ther. 2010] - PubMed result

Mol Cancer Ther. 2010 Jul 27. [Epub ahead of print]

Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Is a Promising Therapeutic Target for the Treatment of Clear Cell Carcinoma of the Ovary.

Mabuchi S, Kawase C, Altomare DA, Morishige K, Hayashi M, Sawada K, Ito K, Terai Y, Nishio Y, Klein-Szanto AJ, Burger RA, Ohmichi M, Testa JR, Kimura T.

Authors' Affiliations: 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine; 2Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Osaka Police Hospital; 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Osaka Medical College, Osaka, Japan; 4Women's Cancer Program, 5Cancer Genetics and Signaling Program, and 6Department of Surgery, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 7Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kansai Rosai Hospital, Amagasaki, Japan.

Abstract

This study examines the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as a therapeutic target in clear cell carcinoma (CCC) of the ovary, which has been regarded as a chemoresistant histologic subtype. Immunohistochemical analysis using tissue microarrays of 98 primary ovarian cancers revealed that VEGF was strongly expressed both in early-stage and advanced-stage CCC of the ovary. In early-stage CCCs, patients who had tumors with high levels of VEGF had significantly shorter survival than those with low levels of VEGF. In vitro experiments revealed that VEGF expression was significantly higher in cisplatin-refractory human CCC cells (RMG1-CR and KOC7C-CR), compared with the respective parental cells (RMG1 and KOC7C) in the presence of cisplatin. In vivo treatment with bevacizumab (Avastin) markedly inhibited the growth of both parental CCC cell-derived (RMG1 and KOC7C) and cisplatin-refractory CCC cell-derived (RMG1-CR and KOC7C-CR) tumors as a result of inhibition of tumor angiogenesis.
The results of the current study indicate that VEGF is frequently expressed and can be a promising therapeutic target in the management of CCC. Bevacizumab may be efficacious not only as a first-line treatment but also as a second-line treatment of recurrent disease in patients previously treated with cisplatin.
Mol Cancer Ther; 9(8); OF1-12. (c)2010 AACR.

Prevalence of lymph node metastasis in primary mucinous carcinoma of the ovary

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:: To estimate the prevalence of lymph node involvement in women with primary mucinous ovarian carcinomas.
METHODS:: A retrospective study was performed of patients with primary mucinous ovarian carcinomas evaluated at a single institution between 1985 and 2007. A gynecologic oncology pathologist evaluated all cases. Patients with tumors of low malignant potential and mucinous carcinomas metastatic to the ovary from other primary sites were excluded.
RESULTS:: Patients with primary mucinous ovarian carcinomas were identified (n=107). All patients underwent primary surgery. At time of surgery, 93 patients (87%) had tumors that grossly appeared to be confined to the ovary, and 14 patients (13%) had evidence of extraovarian disease. Of the 93 patients with tumors that grossly appeared to be confined to the ovary at surgical exploration, 51 (55%) underwent lymphadenectomy (n=27 pelvic and paraaortic, n=19 pelvic only, n=5 paraaortic only). Of these 51 patients, none had metastatic disease to the pelvic or paraaortic lymph nodes. In addition, there were no significant differences in progression-free survival and overall survival rates between the patients who underwent lymphadenectomy and those who did not.
CONCLUSION:: There were no cases of isolated lymph node metastases among women with primary mucinous carcinoma grossly confined to the ovary, suggesting that routine lymphadenectomy may be omitted in these patients.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:: III.
(link to 'levels of evidence': http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/levels-evidence-adult-treatment

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