Ovarian Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Ovarian Cancer, including details on symptoms, causes, treatment, information.

Prolonged survival following salvage surgery for chemorefractory ovarian immature teratoma: a case report and review of the literature.

Rezk Y, Sheinfeld J, Chi DS

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY 12208, USA.

BACKGROUND: Data regarding salvage surgery for ovarian immature teratoma (IT) are lacking despite its established role in the management of chemorefractory testicular germ cell tumors. In this report, a case of advanced IT that was salvaged by secondary cytoreduction following failure of both primary therapy and salvage chemotherapy is described, and the available literature is reviewed. CASE: A 28-year-old patient underwent primary cytoreductive surgery followed by platinum-based chemotherapy for stage IIIC, grade 3, ovarian IT. Second-line chemotherapy was administered after residual disease was identified at second-look surgery. Following failure of salvage chemotherapy, aggressive secondary debulking resulted in long-term disease-free survival of over 48 months. CONCLUSION: There appears to be a distinct role for salvage surgery in selected cases of chemorefractory IT. More studies are needed to further define the subset of patients who benefit most from this management approach.

Published 21 February 2005 in Gynecol Oncol, 96(3): 883-7.
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