The Retrospective Study of Second‐line Chemotherapy in Ovarian Cancer

Objective:  To evaluate the efficacy of Second-line Chemotherapy for ovarian cancer not from short term efficacy but from the survival rate. Patients and Methods:  Eighty-seven patients with epitherial ovarian cancer treated with Second-line chemotherapy from 1993 were examined retrospectively. All the patients were treated with platinum as first line chemotherapy (≥ 3 courses). Paclitaxel was used for Second-line Chemotherapy in 25 patients. The Kaplan-Meier Method and Log-Rank Test were carried out for the cumulative survival rate and analysis. Results:  The Median Survival Time of all patients after Second-line Chemotherapy was 23.6 months. Any significant difference in the survival rate was recognized only by the histological diagnosis (p < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in the survival rates whether patients were treated with paclitaxel as second line chemotherapy or not (p = 0.1915). The disease free survival period of the Second Look Laparotomy (SLL) negative group (23.9 months) is longer than that of SLL positive group (6.2 months). Conclusions:  The survival rate after Second-line Chemotherapy was influenced only by histological diagnosis. ACTA OBST GYNAEC JPN Vol. 54, No. 9, pp. 1429–1436, 2002