Carcinosarcoma of the ovary: a single institution experience and review of the literature

Purpose: To evaluate the management and outcome in patients with advanced stage primary carcinosarcoma (CS) of the ovary in a single institution. Materials and Methods: The authors performed a retrospective analysis of all patients treated for CS of the ovary between 1994 and 2011. The medical records, operative reports and pathology records were abstracted for baseline characteristics, surgical staging, degree of cytoreduction and chemotherapy regimens used. Standard statistical methods for analysis of the data were used. Results: A total of 33 patients with ovarian CS were identified. Of these, 28 records were available for analysis. One patient was Stage I (3.5%), two were Stage II (11.1%), 20 were Stage III (71.4%), and five (17.9%) were Stage IV. The early stage (Stage I and II) patients were excluded from analysis. Of the 25 advanced stage (III and IV) patients, 21 (84.0%) were optimally cytoreduced to a residual disease of < one cm and four (16.0%) were suboptimally cytoreduced. The median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were ten and 21 months, respectively, for advanced stages. Twenty-one (75%) patients received adjuvant chemotherapy and 62% (13 of 21) of treated patients received paclitaxel/carboplatin (T/C) as first-line chemotherapy. The median PFS and OS were 15.6 and 31.7 months, respectively, for those treated with T/C. There was no difference in PFS (p = 0.42) and OS (p = 0.91) between the patients who received T/C vs. other chemotherapy regimens as a first-line adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients with optimal cytoreduction had an improved PFS compared to those with suboptimal cytoreduction (ten vs. four months p = 0.015); however, there was no difference in OS (21 vs. 13 p = 0.117). The two-year OS was 48.0%. In the preset study, PFS was improved in patients who were optimally cytoreduced at the time of diagnosis. Conclusion: T/C is an active regimen in the treatment of ovarian CS and has the potential to be the backbone for addition of biologic targeted therapies in the future. For advanced ovarian CS the authors recommend optimal cytoreductive surgery followed by T/C chemotherapy.

Ovarian carcinosarcoma; Carboplatin; Cytoreductive surgery; Paclitaxel.

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