Reduction Of Cycles of neOadjuvant Chemotherapy for Advanced Epithelial Ovarian, Fallopian and Primary Peritoneal Cancer

Primary debulking surgery (PDS) followed by adjuvant chemotherapy is the standard treatment for advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian and primary peritoneal cancer. However, three or four cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by interval debulking surgery (IDS) has been introduced in clinical setting because four randomized controlled trials related have shown a lower rate of complications in NAC followed by IDS despite the similar efficacy between PDS and NAC followed by IDS in advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian and primary peritoneal cancers. However, these trials have some limitations that the rate of optimal cytoreduction defined as the size of residual tumor \<1 cm was about 40%, which was a disappointed result not showing the surgical effect improving survival. Nevertheless, more treatment strategies using NAC followed by IDS should be investigated because NAC followed by IDS has been already known as another standard treatment due to the safety. A recent meta-analysis has reported that reduction of one cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy may increase overall survival of 4.1 months because it can induce surgical resection of more visible tumors with drug-resistant. Moreover, a related clinical trial has shown that hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) may increase survival in patients with advanced ovarian cancer who received three cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy because HIPEC can kill drug-resistant invisible tumor cells which were not resected during IDS. Thus, the investigators designed a phase 3, multicenter, randomized controlled trial for comparing survival, clinical outcomes and quality of life between two and three cycles of NAC followed by IDS, and thereby will investigate the efficacy and safety of reduction of one cycle of NAC.