RESUMO
The relative benefit of bevacizumab in ovarian cancer (OC) patients is greater the more the disease becomes platinum-resistant. Among other mechanisms of action, antiangiogenic agents may induce homologous recombination deficiency. Cyclin E1 (CCNE1) overexpression is a proposed marker of platinum resistance and is mutually exclusive with deficiency in homologous recombination. In this study, we evaluated the predictive value of CCNE1 expression with regard to the efficacy of bevacizumab. We retrospectively evaluated data from patients with platinum-sensitive recurrent OC who were treated with chemotherapy (CT) plus bevacizumab (Bev group) or CT alone (CT group) at a tertiary cancer centre from 2005 to 2017. The two groups were paired according to histology, platinum-free interval (PFI) and number of previous treatment lines. Progression-free survival (PFS) was compared between groups by log rank test and Cox regression. A total of 124 patients were included, with 62 in each group. The groups were well balanced regarding histology, PFI and number of previous treatment lines. Median PFS (mPFS) was 19.5 months for the Bev group versus 16.0 months for CT group (p = 0.150). By multivariate analysis, the HR for PFS was 2.25 (95% CI: 1.10-4.60) for CCNE1 overexpression. The benefit of bevacizumab was larger in the subgroups of patients with PFI 6-12 months (mPFS 18.6 versus 10.4 months, p = 0.002) and CCNE1 overexpression (mPFS 16.3 versus 7.0 months, p = 0.010). In conclusion, CCNE1 overexpression and PFI may suggest which patients will receive the greatest benefit from bevacizumab. These data, if confirmed by other studies, could help better select patients for antiangiogenic therapy.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Brain metastasis (BM) is a rare event in ovarian cancer patients. The current prognostic scores that have been used for other tumors do not account for specific characteristics of ovarian cancer, such as platinum sensitivity. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study examined patients with ovarian carcinoma and BM who were treated at a single institution from January 2007 to December 2017. Clinical data on the diagnosis of BM and follow-up were collected. Cox regression was used to evaluate prognostic factors for overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Of 560 patients, 26 presented with BM. Eight patients were treated with surgery, 15 with whole-brain radiotherapy (RT), and 5 with stereotactic RT, and 4 patients received systemic treatment at the diagnosis of BM. The median OS was 10.8 months. The following factors were associated with OS: platinum-sensitive recurrence (HR 0.34, 95% CI 0.12-0.99; p = 0.049), higher number of previous treatment lines (HR 1.57, 95% CI 1.12-2.19; p = 0.008), ECOG performance status (HR 2.52, 95% CI 1.24-5.09; p = 0.010), and longer interval from initial diagnosis to BM (p = 0.025). Notably, the number of brain metastasis, the largest tumor size, and progression outside of the CNS were not related to survival. Platinum sensitivity was not associated with any of the classic prognostic factors in brain metastasis patients such as number or size of brain metastasis or disease progression outside the CNS strengthening the hypothesis of the importance of platinum sensitivity to the prognosis of ovarian cancer patients with BM. CONCLUSIONS: The factors related to the biological behavior of the ovarian cancer such as platinum sensitivity at the time of BM diagnosis, fewer number of previous treatment lines and interval from initial diagnosis were associated with survival in ovarian cancer patients with BM, while factors that are usually related to survival in BM in other cancers were not associated with survival in this cohort of ovarian cancer patients. The small number of patients did not allow us to exclude the prognostic role of these former factors that were not associated with survival in the present cohort.
