gms | German Medical Science

Objectives: The standard chemotherapy of advanced primary ovarian cancer is carboplatin/taxane-based. Anemia is a frequent side effect of a platinum-containing chemotherapy regimen. Furthermore, ovarian cancer is often associated with tumour anemia. It was the aim of this study to evaluate the prognostic relevance of hemoglobin levels before and during carboplatin/taxane-based chemotherapy.

Methods: We studied retrospectively n=61 patients with primary epithelial ovarian cancer receiving carboplatin/taxane-based chemotherapy. The majority of the patients (n=46) were treated with a combined chemotherapy of at least six cycles of carboplatin (AUC 5) and docetaxel 75mg/m² d1q22. Hemoglobin levels were obtained before each cycle of the therapy. Study objectives were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall-survival (OAS). Univariate analysis and cox-regression studies were undertaken to evaluate the prognostic impact of hemoglobin levels before und during chemotherapy.

Results: The median age of the patients was 57 years. The majority of the patients were diagnosed at stage III ovarian cancer and had received best cytoredutive surgery. 403 cycles of three different carboplatin/taxane-based chemotherapy regimen were administered. In cox-regression analysis hemoglobin levels during chemotherapy showed a prognostic relevance in terms of PFS (p<0.05). Kaplan-Meier-analyses demonstrated a significant difference in PFS between patients with lower and respectively higher hemoglobin levels compared to the median of the corresponding subgroup.

Conclusions: Hemoglobin levels throughout therapy seem to have prognostic relevance for patients with primary epithelial ovarian cancer undergoing carboplatin/taxane-based chemotherapy. Further prospective trials should evaluate the role of anemia correction as standard supportive therapy in the treatment of patients with primary ovarian cancer.