Patterns of care, predictors and outcomes of chemotherapy for ovarian carcinosarcoma: A National Cancer Database analysis

abstract

Highlights

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Ovarian carcinosarcoma has worse prognosis compared to papillary serous histology.

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The survival difference was noted across all FIGO stages.

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Women with ovarian carcinosarcoma are less likely to receive chemotherapy.

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Objective

The aim of this study is to determine if outcomes of patients with ovarian carcinosarcoma (OCS) differ from those of women with high-grade papillary serous ovarian carcinoma (HG-PSOC) when compared by stage and treatment modalities.

Methods

The National Cancer Database was queried to identify patients with OCS and HG-PSOC diagnosed between 2003 and 2011. Demographic and clinical data were compared, and the impact of tumor histology on survival was analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method. Factors predictive of outcome were compared using the Cox proportional hazards model.

Results

The final study group consisted of 45,153 women. 2886 (6.39%) had OCS and 42,267 (93.61%) had HG-PSOC. The mean age at diagnosis was 65.43 (± 12.21) years for women with OCS and 61.52 (± 12.6) years for HG-PSOC (P < 0.001). African-American women had higher rate of OCS relative to white non-hispanic women (7.84% vs. 6.37%; P = 0.002). Overall, women with OCS had a worse five-year survival rate, 26.63% [95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 24.86%–28.53%] vs. 43.61% (95% CI = 43.07%–44.17%). This difference persisted for each FIGO disease stage I–IV, with five-year survival consistently worse for women with OCS compared to those with HG-PSOC. Over the entire study period and after adjusting for histology, age, period of diagnosis, SEER registry, marital status, stage, surgery, radiotherapy, and lymph node dissection, carcinosarcoma histology was associated with decreased survival.

Conclusion

OCS is associated with a poor prognosis compared to HG-PSOC. This difference was noted across all FIGO stages.