Salvage therapy with whole‐abdominal irradiation in patients with advanced carcinoma of the ovary previously treated by combination chemotherapy

: Whole-abdominal irradiation was delivered to 22 patients with epithelial carcinoma of the ovary who had persistent disease after chemotherapy. Seventeen patients were treated with an open whole-abdominal field and 5 with the moving-field technique. Eleven of the 22 also received a pelvic boost. Two of nine patients with microscopic disease at second look are alive and disease-free at 34 and 52 months, respectively. There were no salvages among the patient with macroscopic disease. Major complications included bowel obstruction in three patients and radiation enteritis in one patient. Whole-abdominal irradiation is not an effective salvage regimen after multiagent chemotherapy.