Advanced gynecological cancer: Quality of life one year after diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE: Gynaecological cancer treatment impacts women's physical and psychological health. Our objective was to examine quality of life (QoL) in women with advanced gynaecological cancer at diagnosis and one year later, and to identify sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated with QoL. METHODS: Women with endometrial, ovarian or cervical cancer treated in Uppsala, Sweden 2012-2019 were included. FIGO stage ≥II was considered advanced gynaecological cancer, whereas women in FIGO stage I were used as a control group. QoL was assessed with SF-36. We obtained information on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics from medical records and health questionnaires. Differences in QoL domains were tested with t-tests, a mixed model ANOVA and multiple linear regression analyses. RESULTS: The study population (n = 372) included 150 (40.3%) women with advanced gynaecological cancer. At diagnosis, women with advanced cancer reported lower physical (71.6 vs 81.8 (mean) p<0.05) and role functioning/physical scores (62.6 vs 77.2 (mean) p<0.05) than women in FIGO stage I. One year later, women with advanced cancer reported higher scores in the mental health domain (78.3 vs 73.2 (mean) p<0.05) than women in FIGO stage I. However, no difference was found in the QoL scores of women with advanced disease one year after diagnoses when stratified by diagnosis. Women with a history of psychiatric illness and higher BMI reported poorer physical and mental QoL at follow-up, while advanced stage, level of education and smoking were not associated with QoL. CONCLUSION: Women with advanced gynaecological cancer have equally good QoL one year after diagnosis as women with limited disease. Women with previous psychiatric illness and high BMI, are at risk of impaired physical and mental health.

Peritoneal cancer index predicts severe complications after ovarian cancer surgery.

INTRODUCTION: prediction and importance of severe postoperative complications after ovarian cancer surgery is a strong issue in patient selection and evaluation. Pre- and early peroperative predictors of severe 30-days postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo class ≥3) after surgery for primary ovarian cancer are not fully established, neither their impact on patients' survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective observational study included 256 patients with primary ovarian cancer FIGO stages IIB-IV, operated during 2009-2018 in a primary or interval debulking surgery setting. Patient variables were analysed in relation to severe postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo class ≥3) and overall survival. RESULTS: High-grade postoperative complications occurred in 24.2% patients. Class 3a complications were observed in 12.5% cases. High-grade complications class ≥3 were observed in 31.6% after primary debulking surgery compared to 12.2% after interval debulking surgery (p = 0.0004). Peritoneal cancer index ≥21 and preoperative albumin concentration ≤33 g/L were independent predictors of high-grade complications. Peritoneal cancer index correlated with the surgical complexity score and completeness of cytoreduction. Increased peritoneal cancer index was a negative predictor of overall survival, but high-grade complications did not influence survival negatively. CONCLUSIONS: Peritoneal cancer index ≥21 was an independent predictor of high-grade complications after ovarian cancer surgery. Increased peritoneal cancer index also impacted overall survival negatively, but high-grade complications did not influence overall survival.

Validation of 18F-FDG PET/MRI and diffusion-weighted MRI for estimating the extent of peritoneal carcinomatosis in ovarian and endometrial cancer -a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: The extent of peritoneal carcinomatosis is difficult to estimate preoperatively, but a valid measure would be important in identifying operable patients. The present study set out to validate the usefulness of integrated 18F-FDG PET/MRI, in comparison with diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI), for estimation of the extent of peritoneal carcinomatosis in patients with gynaecological cancer. METHODS: Whole-body PET/MRI was performed on 34 patients with presumed carcinomatosis of gynaecological origin, all scheduled for surgery. Two radiologists evaluated the peritoneal cancer index (PCI) on PET/MRI and DW-MRI scans in consensus. The surgeon estimated PCI intraoperatively, which was used as the gold standard. RESULTS: Median total PCI for PET/MRI (21.5) was closer to surgical PCI (24.5) (p = 0.6), than DW-MRI (median PCI 20.0, p = 0.007). However, both methods were highly correlated with the surgical PCI (PET/MRI: ß = 0.94 p < 0.01, DW-MRI: ß = 0.86, p < 0.01). PET/MRI was more accurate (p = 0.3) than DW-MRI (p = 0.001) when evaluating patients at primary diagnosis but no difference was noted in patients treated with chemotherapy. PET/MRI was superior in evaluating high tumour burden in inoperable patients. In the small bowel regions, there was a tendency of higher sensitivity but lower specificity in PET/MRI compared to DW-MRI. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that FDG PET/MRI is superior to DW-MRI in estimating total spread of carcinomatosis in gynaecological cancer. Further, the greatest advantage of PET/MRI seems to be in patients at primary diagnosis and with high tumour burden, which suggest that it could be a useful tool when deciding about operability in gynaecological cancer.

Preoperative and intraoperative assessment of myometrial invasion in endometrial cancer-A Swedish Gynecologic Cancer Group (SweGCG) study.

INTRODUCTION: Deep myometrial invasion (≥50%) is a prognostic factor for lymph node metastases and decreased survival in endometrial cancer. There is no consensus regarding which pre/intraoperative diagnostic method should be preferred. Our aim was to explore the pattern of diagnostic methods for myometrial invasion assessment in Sweden and to evaluate differences among magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), transvaginal sonography, frozen section, and gross examination in clinical practice. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a nationwide historical cohort study; women with endometrial cancer with data on assessment of myometrial invasion and FIGO stage I-III registered in the Swedish Quality Registry for Gynecologic Cancer (SQRGC) between 2017 and 2019 were eligible. Data on age, histology, FIGO stage, method, and results of myometrial invasion assessment, pathology results, and hospital level were collected from the SQRGC. The final assessment by the pathologist was considered the reference standard. RESULTS: In the study population of 1401 women, 32% (n = 448) had myometrial invasion of 50% of more. The methods reported for myometrial invasion assessment were transvaginal sonography in 59%, MRI in 28%, gross examination in 8% and frozen section in 5% of cases. Only minor differences were found for age and FIGO stage when comparing methods applied for myometrial invasion assessment. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy to find myometrial invasion of 50% or more with transvaginal sonography were 65.6%, 80.3%, and 75.8%, for MRI they were 76.9%, 71.9%, and 73.8%, for gross examination they were 71.9%, 93.6%, and 87.3%, and for frozen section they were 90.0%, 92.7%, and 92.0%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In Sweden, the assessment of deep myometrial invasion is most often performed with transvaginal sonography, but the sensitivity is lower than for the other diagnostic methods. In clinical practice, the accuracy is moderate for transvaginal sonography and MRI.

The Peritoneal Cancer Index is a Strong Predictor of Incomplete Cytoreductive Surgery in Ovarian Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Extent of tumor load is an important factor in the selection of ovarian cancer patients for cytoreductive surgery (CRS). The Peritoneal Cancer Index (PCI) gives exact information on tumor load but still is not standard in ovarian cancer surgery. The aim of this study was to find a PCI cutoff for incomplete CRS. The secondary aims were to identify reasons for open-close surgery and to compare surgical complications in relation to tumor burden. METHODS: The study included 167 women with stage III or IV ovarian cancer scheduled for CRS. Possible predictors of incomplete surgery were evaluated with receiver operator curves, and a PCI cutoff was identified. Surgical complications were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance and Chi square tests. RESULTS: The median PCI score for all the patients was 22 (range 3-37) but 33 (range 25-37) for the patients with incomplete surgery (n = 19). The PCI predicted incomplete CRS, with an area under the curve of 0.94 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.91-0.98). Complete CRS was obtained for 67.2% of the patients with a PCI higher than 24, who experienced an increased rate of complications (p = 0.008). Overall major complications were found in 16.9% of the cases. Only 28.6% of the patients with a PCI higher than 33 achieved complete CRS. The reason for open-close surgery (n = 14) was massive carcinomatosis on the small bowel in all cases. CONCLUSION: The study found PCI to be an excellent predictor of incomplete CRS. Due to a lower surgical success rate, the authors suggest that neoadjuvant chemotherapy could be considered if the PCI is higher than 24. Preoperative radiologic assessment should focus on total tumor burden and not necessarily on specific regions.