Embargoed until February 9, 1998

Contact: Johanna Spangenberg
Phone: (703) 527-7424

Contact: Barbara Halpern
Phone: (202) 332-7353

NEWS ROOM: February 6-11, 1998
Walt Disney World Dolphin
Orlando, Florida (407) 560-2675

A TEN-YEAR STUDY PROVIDES NEW INFORMATION REGARDING SURVIVAL RATES OF WOMEN TREATED FOR OVARIAN CANCER

Medical researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have conducted the first long-term follow-up of ovarian cancer patients having a negative second-look laparotomy, after treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy. Their findings will be presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

ORLANDO, FL -- Is surgery followed by chemotherapy effective in treating ovarian cancer? Is the stage of the cancer, early or advanced, the key to the success of the treatment? Should women who have undergone surgical treatment for ovarian cancer receive a second-look laparotomy? Now, a ten-year follow-up study of women with ovarian cancer, provides new information for physicians and patients in the battle against women's cancer.

This new medical research was conducted by Stephen C. Rubin, MD, and Thomas C. Randall, MD, both from the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA, and Katrina A. Armstrong, MD, Dennis Chi, MD, and William J. Hoskins, MD, all three at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, NY.

Dr. Rubin will represent his colleagues as he presents the research results on February 9, 1998, before the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (SGO) being held at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort, Orlando, FL, February 7-11, 1998.

Background: Ovarian cancer is this country's most lethal female malignancy. Last year, this disease occurred in approximately 26,000 women and was the cause of more than 14,000 deaths. In most cases, when ovarian cancer is first diagnosed, the disease has already spread, resulting in a five-year survival rate of just 30%. The treatment for the disease has been surgical removal of the tumor followed by administration of chemotherapy. Often, a "second-look laparotomy" (a systematic surgical re-exploration of asymptomatic patients with no clinical evidence of tumor following their initial surgery and chemotherapy) is performed to assess the patients response to treatment.

Methodology: Over a nine-year period (1978-87), 1,073 new patients with ovarian cancer were treated at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Of that group, 91 patients were selected for the study, all having been identified as having surgically-documented complete responses to platinum-based therapy and showing no evidence of disease at second-look surgery (laparotomy). Stage I cancerous tumors had been present in ten patients, stage II tumors had been present in 18 patients, stage III tumors had been present in 57 patients and stage IV cancerous tumors had been present in six patients.

Medical records were reviewed to determine each patient's age, tumor stage, grade (classification of the degree of malignancy), histology (cell type), extent and success of surgery, and other factors that could predict tumor recurrence. The findings at second-look surgery and clinical follow-up were entered in a computer base. Disease-free survival of the patients was calculated from the date of the second-look laparotomy to the date of the last follow-up examination for patients without disease, or to the date of recurrence.

Results: The median length of follow-up for survivors was 113 months from second-look surgery and 130 months from initial surgery. For patients with recurrent disease, the median time from negative second-look surgery to death was 45 months. At the study's completion, the ovarian cancer mortality rate after negative second look was 42 percent.

Recurrence-free survival rates for all patients were 75 percent at 2 years, 55 percent at 5 years, and 52 percent at 10 years. The patients with stage I disease had a survival rate of 90 percent at 2, 5, and 10 years. Corresponding rates for stage II patients were 78 percent, 72 percent, and 66 percent, at 2,5, and 10 years respectively, stages III and IV patients (grouped together) had rates of 72 percent, 44 percent, and 40 percent at 2,5, and 10 years.

Overall survival rates at 2, 5, and 10 years were 90 percent, 69 percent, and 51 percent, respectively, for all patients. For Stage I patients, overall survival for the same time periods were 100 percent, 90 percent, and 90 percent; Stage II patients achieved 100 percent, 88 percent, and 72 per cent, and those with stage III and IV tumors had overall survival rates of 85 percent, 61 percent, and 40 percent (2, 5, and 10 years).

The researches contend that their ten year follow-up study demonstrated that:
-- Stage, histologic grade, and residual tumor were significantly related to both recurrence-free and overall survival at ten years.

-- Positive second-look findings in stage I patients were so unusual that the researchers no longer perform such surgery in stage I ovarian cancer patients.

-- Few patients who remain free of disease for five years following negative second look will relapse between the fifth and tenth year of follow-up.

The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (SGO) is a professional society of physicians who specialize in gynecologic oncology. SGO is the only U.S. based medical organization dedicated to the prevention, detection and cure of female cancers. Gynecologic oncologists are cancer specialists trained in all the effective forms of treatment of gynecologic cancers (surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and experimental treatments) as well as the biology and pathology of gynecologic cancers. The organization is comprised primarily of gynecologic oncologists as well as medical oncologists, radiation therapists and pathologists all of whom have a primary professional commitment to the treatment of women with gynecologic malignancies including those of the ovaries, endometrium, uterus, cervix vagina, vulva and trophoblastic disease.

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Editor's Note: For a complete copy of the complete manuscript or to schedule an interview with Dr. Rubin contact Johanna Spangenberg (703) 527-7424.

The Informatics Committee of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (SGO) has led the development of the Women's Cancer Network under the direction of Drs. Mitchell Morris and Ivor Benjamin. For more information vist the following web site http://www.wcn.org