Intraperitoneal mitoxantrone in the treatment of recurrent ascites from progressive epithelial ovarian cancer.

5051 Background: In patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), progression of disease is often characterized by recurrent ascites that does not respond neither to antineoplastic drugs nor to repeated paracentesis. We evaluated the effect of Mitoxantrone (MTZ) administered intraperitoneum (i.p.) to obtain control of recurrent ascites in this particular subset of pts. Methods: Seventy-four patients (median age 59 yrs, range 39–76) with EOC who progressed with ascites after 3 (42/74), 4 (23/74) or 5 (9/74) previous lines of chemotherapy were treated with MTZ i.p. delivered through a temporary catheter (EasyCyst puncture set,Ch 12, RUSCH France). After removing all the ascitic fluid, the drug was infused at the dose of 20 mg/m2, diluted in 1,500 mL of normal saline, via a 60-minute i.p. instillation and then it was left in situ. All the patients were controlled every 28 days and treatment was repeated in the presence of new developed ascites.The response of ascites to MTZ, was measured according these res...