abstract: Clinical implications of pleural effusions in ovarian cancer.

Clinical implications of pleural effusions in ovarian cancer.:

Respirology. 2012 Mar 28;

Abstract

The pleural cavity constitutes the most frequent extra-abdominal metastatic site in ovarian carcinoma (OC). In patients with OC and pleural effusions, a positive fluid cytology is required for a stage IV diagnosis. Unfortunately, about 30% of malignant pleural effusions exhibit false negative cytological pleural fluid results. In those circumstances, exploratory video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) serves as a diagnostic, staging and even therapeutic modality.
Maximal (no visible disease) or, at least, optimal (no residual implant greater than 1 cm) cytoreduction should be the primary surgical goal in stage IV OC patients. This is due to residual tumor after cytoreductive surgery being one of the most important factors impacting on survival. Although malignant pleural effusions do not preclude abdominal surgical debulking, excision of gross pleural nodules may be necessary to achieve optimal cytoreduction. VATS quantifies pleural tumor burden and allows for intrathoracic cytoreduction or, if the latter is not feasible, ensures that abdominal surgery is not unnecessarily performed on women in whom gross tumor would still remain in the pleural space afterwards. Taxane-platinum neoadjuvant chemotherapy should be offered to this group. Patients with tumor extension into the pleural space have a median overall survival of 2 years.