Younger women who are diagnosed with low-grade serous ovarian carcinoma and those with persistent disease after the completion of their primary therapy have the worst outcomes, according to a study published online July 20 in Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Patients with low grade serous peritoneum cancer (LGSPC) also appeared to have a better prognosis than did those with low grade serous ovarian cancer (LGSOC).
From a cohort of 350 eligible patients identified from a database at a single center, women with LGSPC had significantly longer progression-free survival and overall survival compared with those with LGSOC (PFS: 36.2 v 25.4 months; P = .02; and OS: 129.0 vs. 95.2 months; P = .01, respectively).
Age also played a role in outcomes. Women diagnosed when they were older than 35 years had longer median progression-free survival compared with women diagnosed at age 35 years or younger (32.6 months vs 18.8 months; P less than .001).
In addition, patients with persistent disease at the end of their primary therapy had a 1.79 greater chance of progression or recurrence compared with those without it (P less than .001).
In the multivariable setting, only age, primary site, and disease status at end of primary therapy remained significant predictors of disease progression or recurrence.
“The principal findings of this study confirm the results of our original publication, indicating that relative to patients with high-grade ovarian or peritoneal cancers, women with low-grade serous carcinoma are younger on average and have prolonged OS,” wrote Dr. David M. Gershenson of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and colleagues. “In addition, we found that three factors seemed to have a significant influence on patient outcomes: disease status at completion of primary treatment, age, and primary site of disease,” they wrote (J. Clin. Oncol. 2015 July 20 [doi:10.1200/JCO.2015.61.0873]).