IS CONSERVATIVE THERAPY EVER JUSTIFIED IN STAGE 1 (1A) CANCER OF OVARY

One hundred and forty-four patients with unilateral ovarian carcinoma were treated by bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and hysterectomy in this report and 46 by preserving the opposite apparently normal ovary and frequently the uterus. Five-year survival was slightly higher in the radically treated group but the difference was not statistically significant. When considered by histologic type and degree of malignancy, a slightly higher 5 year survival rate, again not statistically significant, was obtained with radical treatment in all types except mucinous carcinomas. The risk of a microscopic focus of cancer in the opposite apparently normal ovary was estimated to be 12 per cent. Six conservatively treated patients, mostly those with mucinous carcinomas, had at least 10 subsequent successful pregnancies. © 1969.