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Relapse therapy associated with improved survival in ovarian cancer
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Relapse therapy up to the fourth recurrence was linked to improvements in PFS and OS in a cohort of patients with ovarian cancer, according to study results.
Researchers from several sites in Europe aimed to determine why ovarian cancer is associated with high relapse rates by examining the effectiveness of chemotherapy in higher treatment lines.
The researchers included 1,620 patients in the analysis. They culled data for second- to sixth-line therapies from three large randomized phase 3 trials that investigated primary therapy.
Median PFS after the first relapse in this cohort was 10.2 months (95% CI, 9.6-10.7). The median PFS was 6.4 months (95% CI, 5.9-7) after the second relapse, 5.6 months (95% CI, 4.8-6.2) after the third, 4.4 months (95% CI, 3.7-4.9) after the fourth and 4.1 months (95% CI, 3-5.1) after the fifth.
Median OS was 17.6 months (95% CI, 16.4-18.6) after the first relapse, 11.3 months (95% CI, 10.4-12.9) after the second, 8.9 months (95% CI, 7.8-9.9) after the third, 6.2 months (95% CI, 5.1-7.7) after the fourth and 5 months (95% CI, 3.8-10.4) after the fifth.
Platinum combinations were reported as the most frequent second-line chemotherapies, with 24.5% of patients (n=313) receiving them. Topotecan was the most frequently used third-line therapy (n=118; 23.6%).
Relapse therapy was linked to improvements in survival outcomes at the second to fourth recurrences. However, these therapies were frequently not performed to standard of care, according to the researchers.
Multivariable analysis results indicated that platinum sensitivity and optimal primary tumor debulking independently predicted factors for PFS up to the point of the third relapse.
“A maximum of three lines of subsequent relapse treatment seems to be beneficial for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer,” the researchers concluded.
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