title: Three cycles of chemotherapy followed by primary cytoreductive surgery for unresectable ovarian cancer.
abstract: Definitive primary cytoreductive surgery was achieved at second laparotomy after three cycles of combination chemotherapy (cisplatin and cyclophosphamide) in three patients who presented with unresectable disease at our Ovarian Tumor Unit. The ovarian cancer was inoperable at the first laparotomy and no surgical procedure was performed other than biopsy of malignant tumor to confirm the diagnosis. Following interventional surgical cytoreduction the patients were given a further six courses of combination chemotherapy and then maintained for a further six cycles on oral chlorambucil. Two patients are disease free at 17 and 21 months, respectively, while the other patient has cytological evidence of malignancy but no other clinically detectable tumor deposits at 27 months.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of the Witwatersrand, Medical School, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guidozzi
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Sonnendecker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000601:surgery