Surgical Outcome and Survival Analysis of Young Patients with Primary Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Objective: The mean age of diagnosis of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is in the mid-fifties. Limited data exist about the clinical outcome of patients aged below 35 years. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the cancer-related characteristics, intraoperative findings, surgical outcome and survival in this group of young women. Patients and Methods: Within the period between 01/1989 and 06/2008, all consecutive patients younger than 35 years with histologically proven EOC were enrolled into this study. All patients' characteristics, intraoperative and histological findings, as well as survival data were systematically analyzed using a validated prospective documentation tool for the intraoperative and postoperative data collection. Results: Thirty-one patients younger than 35 years at primary diagnosis (mean age: 28.65years; range: 15-35) were identified among 397 patients with primary EOC (7.8%). FIGO-stage III (45.2%) was the most common tumor stage and serous-papillary (54.8%) was the most frequent histological type. A complete tumor resection was achieved in 18 patients (58.1%) with only few postoperative complications. In a mean follow-up period of 44.65 months, 9 patients (29%) died. Mean progression-free survival was 74.72 months (95% CI: 34.22-115.22), whereas mean overall survival was 148.15 months (95% CI: 91.63-204.68) and hence longer than the equivalent survival data of the total patient collective. Conclusion: Primary EOC in young patients (<= 35 years old) seems to be associated with a higher overall and progression-free survival, higher platinum-sensitivity rate and a rather better clinical outcome than older patients. Further multicenter studies are warranted to evaluate the underlying reasons for these observations.