Age May be Prognostic Factor in Ovarian Cancer

Young age may be a protective prognostic factor for progression-free and overall survival among patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer, according to a study published in the European Journal of Cancer.¹

Researchers identified 294 patients with ovarian cancer who were younger than 40 years, and 4761 patients with ovarian cancer who were at least 40, to evaluate prognostic discrepancies between these 2 age groups.

Survival analyses and Cox proportional hazard regression models were performed, and researchers analyzed an optimally-treated, homogenous subcohort of 405 patients with serious epithelial ovarian cancer and excellent performance status. Each member of the subcohort received complete macroscopic upfront cytoreduction and at least 5 chemotherapy cycles.

Median progression-free survival was 28.9 months and overall survival was 75.3 months for patients who were younger than 40. In contrast, median progression-free survival was 18.1 months and overall survival was 45.7 months for patients who were at least 40.

Upon multivariate analysis that included prognostic factors known to lead to potential confounding, the researchers found that young age appeared to improve progression-free and overall survival, with a stronger observed effect among the subcohort of optimally-treated patients.

Reference

1. Klar M, Hasenburg A, Hasanov M, et al. Prognostic factors in young ovarian cancer patients: An analysis of four prospective phase III intergroup trials of the AGO Study Group, GINECO and NSGO. Eur J Cancer. 2016 Aug 25. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2016.07.014 [Epub ahead of print]