Experience of a 2-day BEP regimen in postsurgical adjuvant chemotherapy of ovarian germ cell tumors.
The outcome of 31 patients with malignant ovarian germ cell tumors treated by surgery and a medium dose etoposide containing short chemotherapy regimen between 1988 and 1997 is reported. Of the 31 patients, 16 (51.6%) had malignant teratomas, 8 (25.8%) had dysgerminomas, 6 (19%) endodermal sinus tumors and one (3.2%) mixed germ cell tumor. Twenty-four (77.4%) patients were at FIGO stage I (of which 18 were stage IA), 2 (6.5%) at stage II, 4 (12.9%) at stage III and 1 (3.2%) at stage IV. Twenty-five (80.6%) patients underwent conservative surgery, 1 (3.2%) underwent bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and 4 (12.9%) had total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and omentectomy. One (3.2%) patient refused definitive treatment. Three patients with stage IA grade 1 immature teratomas were not treated with adjuvant chemotherapy and one patient with a stage IA dysgerminoma refused chemotherapy. Two patients with endodermal sinus tumor returned to their countries of origin after surgery. Twenty-five patients received bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (BEP) regimen with etoposide dosage fixed at 120 mg/m2 on day 1 and day 2, bleomycin 15 mg intravenous bolus on days 1 and 2 and cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on day 1. Chemotherapy was administered at four weekly intervals for 4 cycles or until complete response was achieved. The median number of cycles of chemotherapy was four (range 3-6) for stage I, 6 (range 4-7) for stage II and 5 (range 5-6) for stage III tumors. Of the entire cohort of 29 patients analyzed, the median follow up period was 5 years. One patient died from stage IIIC endodermal sinus tumor and one patient had persistent teratoma in the lungs. The overall disease free survival control rate was 93.1%. There were three cases of the growing teratoma syndrome involving the liver, abdominal peritoneum, and the pelvis, respectively. No mortality resulted from the growing teratomas. No pulmonary complications, secondary primary tumor or leukemia was detected. Menstrual function returned in all patients with fertility-preserving surgery and one pregnancy occurred. This interesting data suggest that a medium dose 2-day BEP postsurgical adjuvant chemotherapy regimen is effective and superior to expectant treatment of malignant ovarian germ cell tumors. This report, however, should be viewed as a pilot study. The result indicates that a prospective randomised controlled trial to demonstrate equivalence of this regimen with the standard BEP regimen is warranted.
Tay
S. -K.
SK
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
Tan
L. -K.
LK