Ovarian carcinoma. A decade of progress.

Significant and dramatic progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of women with ovarian carcinoma in the last 10 years, the results of which are now just being reflected in an increase in survival and cure rates. In early staged disease (Stage I and II) significant progress has been made concerning our understanding of the sites of subclinical metastasis when at surgery the tumor is clinically limited to the ovary or pelvis. A prospective study of 100 patients with Stages IA to IIB ovarian cancer who underwent restaging within 4 weeks of initial surgery will report this. Moreover, preliminary results of the first randomized therapeutic trials (melphalan versus observation; melphalan versus chromic phosphate [P-32]) in patients surgically staged and found to be Stage IA to IIB carcinoma will be discussed. For Stages IB to III, the 5-year survival rates comparing whole abdominal radiation by the moving strip technique to open field irradiation will be discussed. For advanced (Stage III and IV) ovarian carcinoma, the new techniques in debulking surgery will be illustrated. Finally, the significant progress in response rates, median duration of survival, disease-free survival, and 5-year survival rates made during the past 10 years will be presented. This will be done by comparing a unique group of 117 patients treated with melphalan alone, all of whom have been followed for 5 years or until death, to patients who received cisplatin combination chemotherapy--cyclophosphamide, hexamethylmelamine, Adriamycin (doxorubicin), and cisplatin (CHAD) or cisplatin, Adriamycin, and cyclophosphamide (PAC)--and have now been followed 3.4+ and 4+ years, respectively. What is clearly evident is that in the last decade there has been significant increase in response rates, median duration of survival, 3.4+-, 4+-, and 5-year survival rates and cure rates with the advent of debulking surgery and platinum-containing combination chemotherapy.