Cytoreductive surgery for recurrent ovarian cancer: a meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relative effect of multiple prognostic variables on overall post-recurrence survival time among cohorts of patients with recurrent ovarian cancer undergoing cytoreductive surgery.
METHODS: Forty cohorts of patients with recurrent ovarian cancer (2019 patients) meeting study inclusion criteria were identified from the MEDLINE database (1983-2007). Simple and multiple linear regression analyses, with weighted correlation calculations, were used to assess the effect on median post-recurrence survival time of the following variables: year of publication, age, disease-free interval, localized disease, tumor grade and histology, the proportion of patients undergoing complete cytoreductive surgery, requirement for bowel resection, and the sequence of cytoreductive surgery and salvage chemotherapy.
RESULTS: The mean weighted median disease-free interval prior to cytoreductive surgery was 20.2 months, and the mean weighted median overall post-recurrence survival time was 30.3 months. The weighted mean proportion of patients in each cohort undergoing complete cytoreductive surgery was 52.2%. Median survival improved with increasing year of publication (p=0.009); however, the only statistically significant clinical variable independently associated with post-recurrence survival time was the proportion of patients undergoing complete cytoreductive surgery (p=0.019). After controlling for all other factors, each 10% increase in the proportion of patients undergoing complete cytoreductive surgery was associated with a 3.0 month increase in median cohort survival time.
CONCLUSIONS: Among patients undergoing operative intervention for recurrent ovarian cancer, the proportion of patients undergoing complete cytoreductive surgery is independently associated with overall post-recurrence survival time. For this select group of patients, the surgical objective should be resection of all macroscopic disease.