Cytoreductive surgery in primary advanced epithelial ovarian cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer is one of the most common malignancy and one of the principal causes of death among gynaecological neoplasm. The majority of patients(about 70%) present with an advanced International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics stage disease. The current standard treatment for these patients consists of complete cytoreduction and combined systemic chemotherapy(CT). An increasing proportion of patients undergoing complete cytoreduction to no gross residual disease(RD) is associated with progressively longer overall survival. As a counterpart, some authors hypothesized the improving in survival could be due more to a less diffused initial disease than to an increase in surgical cytoreduction rate. Moreover the biology of the tumor plays an important role in survival benefi t of surgery. It’s still undefi ned how the intrinsic features of the tumor make intra-abdominal implants easier to remove.Adjuvant and hyperthermic intraperitoneal CT could play a decisive role in the coming years as the completeness of macroscopic disease removal increases with advances in surgical techniques and technology. The introduction of neo-adjuvant CT moreover will play a decisive role in the next years Anyway cytoreduction with no macroscopic residual of disease should always be attempted. However the defi nition of RD is not universal. A unique and defi nitive defi nition is needed.