Surgical staging, treatment, and follow-up of borderline tumors in different hospital categories: a prospective nationwide survey in Finland.
BACKGROUND
Surgical treatment and staging of ovarian borderline tumors have been reported to be often suboptimal and differ considerably. We evaluated the extent of surgical treatment of these tumors in different hospital categories.


METHODS
A prospective survey performed in 1999 included 65 patients operated on for borderline ovarian tumors and covered 78% of such patients reported to the Finnish Cancer Registry. Detailed information of demographic data and surgical treatment was reported by the responsible physicians using a special questionnaire after confirmation of histopathology.


RESULTS
Fifty-eight patients (89%) had stage I tumor, only two patients (3%) had stage II disease and five patients (8%) had stage III disease with peritoneal implants. The majority of the patients underwent bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (66%) and hysterectomy (58%). Unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed for 21 (32%) and omentectomy for 22 (34%) patients. Ten out of the 16 women under 40 years of age had fertility-sparing surgery. Peritoneal biopsies were taken in 16 (25%) women and lymphadenectomy was performed for 9 (14%) patients with clinical suspicion of invasive ovarian carcinoma. Frozen section was taken in half of the patients and the histology remained the same in 72% of the final pathology reports. No clear differences of the extent of surgical treatment were detected between different hospital categories. Overall cumulative 5-year relative survival rate was 96%.


CONCLUSIONS
Bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and hysterectomy was performed for the majority of patients with borderline ovarian tumor. More attention should be paid to adequate staging of borderline tumors in all hospital categories.
Kumpulainen
Salla
S
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Turku University Hospital, Turku, PL 52, 20521, Finland.
Kuoppala
Tapio
T
Leminen
Arto
A
Komulainen
Marja
M
Puistola
Ulla
U
Sankila
Risto
R
Mäkinen
Juha
J
Grénman
Seija
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018284:Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D013509:Gynecologic Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006767:Hospitals, District; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006786:Hospitals, Urban; D006801:Humans; D007044:Hysterectomy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008197:Lymph Node Excision / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000592:standards*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D010052:Ovariectomy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires