Cytoreductive surgery plus HIPEC in platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer patients: A case-control study on survival in patients with two year follow-up.

OBJECTIVES: To compare survival data in platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer patients submitted to secondary cytoreduction (SCR) plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal intraoperative chemotherapy (HIPEC) (Cases) and a similar group of women not experiencing HIPEC (Controls). METHODS: Case-control study, matching 37 Cases with 37 Controls, with at least 24months of follow-up. RESULTS: Groups were comparable for all characteristics, except for a higher proportion of patients with single-nodule relapses is the Controls (19 vs. 6; p=0.011). Median follow-up time was 46months in the Cases and 36months in the Controls. Twenty patients (66.6\%) experienced secondary recurrence in the Cases and 37 women (100\%) in the Controls (p=0.001). Moreover, 7 (23.3\%) and 23 (62.2\%) patients died of disease in the Cases and Controls respectively (p=0.003). The duration of secondary response was 26months in the Cases and 15months in the Controls (p=0.004). CONCLUSIONS: The combination of SCR and HIPEC seems to improve survival rate in patients suffering from platinum-sensitive EOC recurrence with respect to no-HIPEC treatments. This result further supports the need of a randomized trial.