Moving beyond "complete surgical resection" and "optimal": Is low-volume residual disease another option for primary debulking surgery?

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between volume of residual disease and oncologic outcomes among patients with advanced-stage epithelial ovarian/fallopian tube/primary peritoneal carcinoma undergoing primary debulking surgery (PDS). For patients that did not undergo a complete surgical resection (CSR), a surrogate for volume of residual disease was used to assess oncologic outcomes. METHODS: Medical records of patients with FIGO stage IIIC and IV epithelial ovarian/fallopian tube/primary peritoneal carcinoma undergoing PDS between January 2010 and November 2014 were reviewed. Patient demographics, operative characteristics, residual disease, anatomic site of residual disease and outcome data were collected. Among patients who did not undergo CSR, but had ≤1 cm of residual disease, the number of anatomic sites (single location vs. multiple locations) with residual disease was utilized as a surrogate for volume of residual disease. The effect of residual disease volume on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was evaluated. RESULTS: Of 240 patients undergoing PDS, 94 (39.2%) had CSR, 41 (17.1%) had ≤1 cm of residual disease confined to a single anatomic location (≤1 cm-SL), 67 (27.9%) had ≤1 cm of residual disease in multiple anatomic locations (≤1 cm-ML) and 38 (15.8%) were sub-optimally (SO) debulked. Median PFS for CSR, ≤1 cm-SL, ≤1 cm-ML and SO-debulked were: 23, 19, 13 and 10 months, respectively (p < 0.001). Median OS for CSR, ≤1 cm-SL, ≤1 cm-ML and SO-debulked were: Not yet reached, 64, 50 and 49 months, respectively (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Following PDS, CSR and ≤ 1 cm-SL patients have the best prognosis. In contrast, despite being considered "optimally debulked", ≤1 cm-ML patients have survival similar to those SO-debulked.

Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia in adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical outcomes in adolescents with gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) compared to adult women. STUDY DESIGN: Patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics criteria for GTN who underwent treatment between January 1, 1973, and December 31, 2010, were identified from the Donald P. Goldstein, M.D., Trophoblastic Tumor Registry of the New England Trophoblastic Disease Center. Adolescents included patients <20 years old at the time of diagnosis. Standard univariate analyses were performed, as were multivariate analyses with logistic regression to control for potential confounding variables. RESULTS: We identified 423 women with GTN; 50 (12%) patients were adolescents (<20 years old), and 373 (88%) were > or = 20 years old. Both groups had the same rate of low-risk GTN score (98% vs. 98%, p = 0.9). In the adolescent group 47 (94%) women had stage I GTN, and 3 (6%) had stage III. In the adult group 304 (81.5%) women had stage I GTN, 4 (1%) had stage II, 64 (17%) had stage III and only 1 (0.5%) had stage IV disease (p = 0.7). Adolescents at molar presentation had higher rates of anemia (30% vs. 14%, p = 0.001), vaginal bleeding (86% vs. 67%, p = 0.001), and a uterus with size greater than dates (42% vs. 24%, p = 0.007). Factors determined to significantly influence resistance to initial chemotherapeutic treatment on multivariate analysis were beta-hCG level at molar presentation > 100,000 mIU/mL, beta-hCG level at persistence >20,000 mIU/mL, the presence of metastasis, and duration of disease > 4 months. Age <20 years old was not a prognostic factor of resistance to initial chemotherapeutic treatment. CONCLUSION: There was no difference between adolescents and adult women in the rates of low-risk GTN, stage of GTN, and the frequency of resistance to initial chemotherapeutic treatment.