A RANDOMIZED TRIAL COMPARING SINGLE-AGENT CARBOPLATIN WITH CARBOPLATIN FOLLOWED BY RADIOTHERAPY FOR ADVANCED OVARIAN-CANCER - A NORTH-THAMES-OVARY-GROUP STUDY

Purpose: To determine in a randomized trial of advanced ovarian carcinoma whether consolidation therapy with whole-abdominal radiotherapy (RT) after chemotherapy improves survival and disease-free survival compared with the continued chemotherapy. Patients and Methods: Two hundred fifty-four patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (stages IIB to IV) were entered onto a study of five monthly courses of 400 mg/m2 of carboplatin. One hundred seventeen patients with residual disease of 2 cm or less at second-look laparotomy or laparoscopy were then randomized to receive consolidation therapy, either five further courses of carboplatin at the same dosage or whole-abdominal RT (24 Gy). There was no control arm. Results: Chemotherapy was well tolerated and was usually administered on an outpatient basis. Myelosuppression that was sufficient to delay chemotherapy occurred in only 3% of 1,418 courses analyzed. The main toxicity of carboplatin was nausea and vomiting, but this was easier to control than that with cisplatin. Although RT was well tolerated in the majority of the 58 patients, one patient who had been found to have multiple adhesions at second-look surgery developed fecal fistulae post-RT that resulted in the patient's death from peritonitis. Median survival for the whole group from date of surgery was 25 months. No statistical difference was found in either survival or disease-free survival between those patients who received consolidation chemotherapy and those who were treated with abdominal RT. Prognostic factors used to assess survival were stage, histology, amount of residual disease after primary surgery, and presence of tumor at second-look surgery. Conclusion: There seems to be no significant advantage for consolidation whole-abdominal RT compared with the continuation of the same chemotherapy in the management of advanced epithelial carcinoma of the ovary, even when no macroscopic residual disease is apparent at second-look surgery.