Re-treatment of patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer with cisplatin-based chemotherapy.

Nineteen patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer who had responded to initial cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy were re-treated with cisplatin-based therapy. The median disease-free interval, as measured from the last cycle of primary chemotherapy to the diagnosis of relapse, was 26.3 months (range 5-81 months). Eighteen of the 19 patients had measurable disease at the time of relapse. Nine patients had a clinical complete response to the cisplatin-based re-treatment, and nine patients had a partial response (surgically documented in one case). The overall response rate to secondary cisplatin-based chemotherapy was therefore 100% in patients with measurable disease. Toxicity of re-treatment was acceptable. The median progression-free survival, as measured from the diagnosis of relapse to the time of disease progression, was 10.6 months (range 4-24 months). The median survival from diagnosis of relapse was 19.3 months (range 5-39 months). At the time of analysis, three patients were alive without evidence of disease, four were alive with tumor, and 12 were dead of cancer. These data suggest that re-induction with cisplatin-based chemotherapy should be considered for patients who develop recurrent disease after favorable responses to primary cisplatin-based chemotherapy.