Treatment patterns, health care utilization, and costs of ovarian cancer in Central and Eastern Europe using a Delphi panel based on a retrospective chart review.

OBJECTIVE: Despite the considerable disease burden of ovarian cancer, there were no cost studies in Central and Eastern Europe. This study aimed to describe treatment patterns, health care utilization, and costs associated with treating ovarian cancer in Hungary, Poland, Serbia, and Slovakia. METHOD: Overall clinical practice for management of epithelial ovarian cancer was investigated through a 3-round Delphi panel. Experts completed a survey based on the chart review (n = 1542). The survey was developed based on clinical guidelines and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Annual Report. Means, ranges, and outlier values were discussed with the experts during a telephone interview. Finally, consensus estimates were obtained in face-to-face workshops. Based on these results, overall cost of ovarian cancer was estimated using a Markov model. RESULTS: The patients included in the chart review were followed up from presurgical diagnosis and in each phase of treatment, that is, surgical staging and primary surgery, chemotherapy and chemotherapy monitoring, follow-up, and palliative care. The 5-year overall cost per patient was €14,100 to €16,300 in Hungary, €14,600 to €15,800 in Poland, €7600 to €8100 in Serbia, and €12,400 to €14,500 in Slovakia. The main components were chemotherapy-associated costs (68%-74% of the total cost), followed by cost of primary treatment with surgery (15%-21%) and palliative care (3%-10%). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with ovarian cancer consume considerable health care resources and incur substantial costs in Central and Eastern Europe. These findings may prove useful for clinicians and decision makers in understanding the economic implications of managing ovarian cancer in Central and Eastern Europe and the need for innovative therapies.

Mucinous carcinoma (non-intestinal type) arising in the ovarian mature cystic teratoma - a case report.

Somatic malignant transformation in mature cystic teratoma is a rare phenomenon of a malignancy of differentiated tissue structures of any stem line. The authors present a case of a 38-year-old female with mature cystic teratoma of both ovaries and with mucinous adenocarcinoma arising from endodermal germ line in the right ovary, showing immunohistochemical features of non-intestinal differentiation. At the time of diagnosis the tumour metastasized to the pelvic and retroperitoneal lymph nodes. The patient was treated with three lines of chemotherapy and died after 15 months with signs of massive progression into the retroperitoneal, mediastinal and cervical lymph nodes, retroperitoneum, duodenal wall and peritoneal cavity. Somatic malignant transformation in mature cystic teratoma is associated with poor prognosis. The most important prognostic factor is tumour stage at the time of diagnosis.