abstract: The impact of pretreatment thrombocytosis and persistent thrombocytosis after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate the impact of both pretreatment thrombocytosis, and platelet count reduction post-adjuvant chemotherapy, on survival in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.

METHODS:

Records of 179 women who underwent cytoreductive surgery for FIGO stage III or IV epithelial ovarian cancer and received six cycles of platinum/paclitaxel-based chemotherapy between July1998 and March 2009 were retrospectively reviewed.....

RESULTS:

Sixty-two of 179 (34.6%) patients had thrombocytosis at primary diagnosis. Patients with preoperative thrombocytosis had greater elevations of CA-125 (p<0.0001) and a greater volume of ascites (p=0.007). On multivariate analysis, thrombocytosis and CA-125 elevation retained significance as indicators of poor prognosis in patients with stage III or IV disease. In patients with normal CA-125 after chemotherapy, a high platelet ratio was an independent risk factor for reduced survival (p=0.05).

CONCLUSIONS:

Preoperative thrombocytosis and a high platelet ratio appear to be poor prognostic factors of survival in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer who were treated with cytoreductive surgery and adjuvant platinum/paclitaxel-based chemotherapy

SGO: Targeting Platelets May Help Ovarian Cancer - in Meeting Coverage

MedPage Today Action Points

• Explain to patients that abnormal platelet levels or activity may play a role in ovarian cancer.


• The findings are based on a retrospective cohort study and laboratory experiments involving a preclinical model of ovarian cancer.


• Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.