OVARIAN CANCER and US: stage 1V ovarian cancer

Blog Archives: Nov 2004 - present

#ovariancancers



Special items: Ovarian Cancer and Us blog best viewed in Firefox

Search This Blog

Showing posts with label stage 1V ovarian cancer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stage 1V ovarian cancer. Show all posts

Monday, May 07, 2012

paywalled: Clinical implications of pleural effusions in ovarian cancer - Porcel - Respirology - Wiley Online Library



 Blogger's Note: note the use of neoadjuvant therapy in this particular subset of ovarian cancer patients

Clinical implications of pleural effusions in ovarian cancer - Porcel - Respirology

Keywords:

  • malignant pleural effusion;
  • ovarian cancer;
  • thoracoscopy;
  • pleurodesis

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.