Retrospective analysis evaluating ovarian cancer cases presented at the clinical oncology department, Alexandria University

Abstract Ovarian cancer is the most common cause of death among women with gynecologic malignancies. The standard management is maximal surgical cytoreduction followed by systemic chemotherapy. The aim of this retrospective study is to evaluate ovarian cancer cases presented at Alexandria Clinical Oncology Department (ACOD) during the years 2008–2010. Methods and materials We reviewed the files of all patients presented at or referred to ACOD from January 2008 till December 2010 with the diagnosis of ovarian cancer, ovarian epithelial tumor, ovarian sex cord tumors, border line ovarian tumor and ovarian germ cell tumors. Results The study included 116 patients, representing 1.4% of all cancer cases; the mean age for all patients was 47.9 ± 13.9 years. Only 13.7% of the patients had positive family history. Stages III and IV were seen in 79.2% of the cases. Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) constituted 75% of the cases, border line tumors 12.9%, granulosa cell tumor 6%, and germ cell tumors 4.3%. Among EOC, serous cystadenocarcinoma was seen in 58%. For EOC, surgery was the initial step in 80.4% of the cases. Paclitaxel-carboplatin was the most commonly used regimen as first line chemotherapy. Response rate to first line chemotherapy reached 87.3% (44.8% complete response). The mean follow up period was 15 months. The progression free survival for EOC after first line chemotherapy was 10.8 months. Conclusion The age incidence of ovarian cancer in our patients is 10 years younger than that seen in Western countries. EOC constitutes the majority among all ovarian cancer cases, followed by border line tumors. Papillary serous cystadenocarcinoma predominates other types of EOC. The response rate of EOC to first line chemotherapy was high but the progression free survival was lower than that seen in the literature.