Background: Carcinosarcoma of the ovary (CSO) is a rare and aggressive variant of ovarian cancer. Due to the rare nature of the disease there is insufficient evidence to make recommendations regarding standard management and overall prognosis.
Methods: An Institutional Review Board-approved study identified all our patients with CSO between January 2011 and May 2018. Demographic and outcome measures were abstracted from the medical records and tumor board files. Cox proportional hazard models, log rank tests, and comparisons of means were used to calculate significance (p < 0.05).
Results: 27 women with CSO were identified. The median age at diagnosis was 65 years (range 48-91). Five women (18%) presented with early stage disease (Stage I or II) and 22 patients (82%) presented with late stage III or IV disease. Twenty patients (74%) received intravenous platinum-based combination chemotherapy. Seven patients did not receive chemotherapy during their treatment course. The median overall survival was 23 months (range 2-68 months). Overall survival was not significantly worsened by the stage of disease at diagnosis. There was no difference in survival based on the age at diagnosis, tobacco status or ethnicity (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: This is one of the largest single institution experiences with CSO. The majority of our patients presented with advanced stage disease and received adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy after cytoreductive surgery. The median overall survival of 23 months was not affected by the stage of the disease. The optimal management of this rare disease needs further study with collaborative, prospective multi-institutional trials.
Keywords: adjuvant therapy; ovarian cancer; ovarian carcinosarcoma.