Prognosis of 2,800 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer diagnosed during 1975-94 and treated at the Norwegian Radium Hospital.
BACKGROUND
Ovarian cancer patients have a poor prognosis. In Norway, however, the prognosis has improved steadily since the 1950s, the age-adjusted 5-year relative survival reaching 37% in 1989 93. The aim of the present study was to explore the prognosis of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer diagnosed during 1975-94 (the prepaclitaxel period) and treated at The Norwegian Radium Hospital.


METHODS
Relative risks (RR) of dying and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were derived from multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models.


RESULTS
A total of 2,769 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer were included in the present study. Altogether 54% of the patients were diagnosed with advanced stage disease (stages III and IV), whereas 32% were diagnosed with stage I disease. The prognosis of the patients improved from the 1970s to the 1990s, mainly due to increased short-term survival. In multivariate survival analysis, the RR of dying decreased with period of diagnosis. An RR of 0.77 (95% CI=0.66-0.89) was seen in 1990-94 compared with 1975-79.


CONCLUSIONS
The short-term survival of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer improved from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. However, no major improvement in the long-term survival was seen.
Bjørge
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Department of Gynecologic Oncology, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Montebello, Oslo.
Engeland
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Sundfør
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Tropé
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CG
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009664:Norway; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome