Second-look laparotomy in ovarian cancer: evaluation of pathologic variables.

From 1977 through 1982, 135 patients with ovarian cancer, having a mean age of 53.7 years and no clinical evidence of disease after approximately 1 year of treatment, underwent a "second-look" laparotomy. Of the 135 patients, 58 (43%) had histologic confirmation of disease at the second-look procedure. Persistent disease was positively correlated with the original stage and negatively correlated with the extent of the original reductive surgery. The original histologic grade or cellular subtype did not significantly influence the findings at reexploration. Patient survival, as judged by percentage of patients alive 3 years after the second-look laparotomy, was dependent on the following surgical/pathologic parameters: tumor size at reexploration, peritoneal cytologic features, residual tumor after reexploration, and histologic grade.