title: Young age is associated with favorable characteristics but is not an independent prognostic factor in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer: a single institution experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Young age has been reported to be a favorable prognostic factor in ovarian cancer. The aim of the present study was to investigate the characteristics of ovarian cancer presenting in patients aged < or =40 and assess the prognostic significance of young age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from 591 consecutive ovarian cancer patients, including 37 subjects (6.3%) aged < or =40, who were treated postoperatively with platinum-based chemotherapy in our institution were retrospectively reviewed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In our series, age < or =40 did not show an independent association with overall (p = 0.542) or progression-free survival (p = 0.334). Nonetheless, it was correlated with low tumor grade (p = 0.009) and small volume of residual disease after primary surgery (p = 0.020), while there was a nonsignificant trend for correlation with performance status 0 (p = 0.052). Stratified analysis showed that age < or =40 was associated with improved overall survival in the subgroups of serous histology and stage IIC-IV disease; however, multivariate analyses failed to identify age as an independent predictor of survival within either subgroup (p = 0.079 and p = 0.585, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Age < or =40 was not an independent prognostic factor in our analysis. The survival advantage of young patients may be attributed to the association with low tumor grade, more complete surgical debulking and better performance status.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Therapeutics, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bozas
authors.forename: Meletios A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Dimopoulos
authors.forename: Efstathios
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kastritis
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Efstathiou
authors.forename: Vassiliki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Koutsoukou
authors.forename: Alexandros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodolakis
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vlahos
authors.forename: Zannis
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Voulgaris
authors.forename: Theoharis
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Papageorgiou
authors.forename: Dimitra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gika
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Papadimitriou
authors.forename: Aristotle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bamias
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate