Publication:

Effect of time interval from completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy to starting of adjuvant chemotherapy after interval debulking surgery on survival of patients with advanced ovarian cancer

Background To find the effect of time interval between completion of neo adjuvant chemotherapy to the starting of adjuvant chemotherapy on the RFS and OS of patients with advanced ovarian cancers.

Methods It is a retrospective study of 170 patients with histopathological proven epithelial ovarian cancers who received full treatment (NACT+IDS+POAC) at Gujarat cancer Research Institute, Ahmedabad between 2010- 2016. They were assessed and followed up for maximum 5 year. The time interval was defined as period from the completion of NACT including Interval de-bulking surgery to initiation of chemotherapy.

Results Out of 170 patients, 86 patients (50.5%) received adjuvant chemotherapy within 44 days after neoadjuvant chemotherapy while 84 patients (49.4%) received it after 44 days. There was no significant difference in patient characteristics between these two groups. The shorter and longer TI was having recurrence in 40 (53.48%) and47 (55.55%) patients respectively. Whereas overall survival was 67.44% and 47.61% respectively.

Conclusions Our analysis showed that patients with longer time interval >44 days had poorer recurrence free survival and overall survival in comparison to lesser TI group.