Clinical and pathologic features of patients with non-epithelial ovarian cancer: retrospective analysis of a single institution 15-year experience

PURPOSE

Non-epithelial ovarian cancers (NEOCs) are rare diseases. Despite their overall good prognosis, the best management and current prognostic factors remain unclear. The objective of our study was to assess the clinical and pathological features of NEOC patients treated in our institution in the last 15 years and to explore risk factors for relapse and survival.

METHODS/PATIENTS

All patients with a pathological diagnosis of NEOC referred to the medical oncology department at Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocio between 1999 and 2014 were included. Demographics, tumor characteristics, treatment procedures, and clinical follow-up were retrospectively collected. Risk factors for disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed.

RESULTS

Fifty-seven patients were included, 33 (58 %) had a sex cord-stromal tumor (SCST) and 24 (42 %) had a germ-cell tumor (GCT). Median age, non-conservative surgery rates and DFS were lower in the GCT cohort; however, salvage chemotherapy led to a high proportion of complete responses in this group translating into a 90 % 3-year OS rate in both NEOC subtypes. The only identified risk factors statistically significant were stage and tumour relapse that associated, respectively, with DFS (HR = 8.84; 95 % CI 1.85-42) and OS (HR = 11.02; 95 % CI 1.76-68.7).

CONCLUSIONS

Despite their rarity, NEOCs remain a highly curable group of neoplasm. In our series, a more conservative treatment approach in ovarian GCTs revealed comparable OS outcomes to SCST. No new risk factors that would help in patient stratification were identified.

Intrauterine factors and risk of nonepithelial ovarian cancers

OBJECTIVE

The majority of ovarian tumors in girls and young women are nonepithelial in origin. The etiology of nonepithelial ovarian tumors remains largely unknown, and intrauterine exposures may play an important role. We examined the association of perinatal factors with risk of nonepithelial ovarian tumors in girls and young women.

METHODS

National cohort study of 1,536,057 women born in Sweden during 1973-2004 and followed for diagnoses of nonepithelial ovarian tumors through 2009 (attained ages 5-37 years). Perinatal and maternal characteristics and cancer diagnoses were ascertained using nationwide health registry data.

RESULTS

147 women were diagnosed with nonepithelial ovarian tumors in 31.6 million person-years of follow-up, including 94 with germ cell tumors and 53 with sex-cord stromal tumors. Women born preterm (<37 weeks of gestation) had a significantly increased risk of developing nonepithelial ovarian tumors (adjusted hazard ratio 1.86, 95% CI 1.03-3.37; p=0.04). Histological subgroup analyses showed that preterm birth was associated with increased risk of sex-cord stromal tumors (4.39, 2.12-9.10; p<0.001), but not germ cell tumors (0.68, 0.21-2.15; p=0.51). No significant associations were found with fetal growth, birth order, and maternal age at birth.

CONCLUSIONS

This large cohort study provides the first evidence that preterm birth is a risk factor for developing sex cord-stromal tumors. Ovarian hyperstimulation in response to high gonadotropin levels in preterm girls could mediate disease risk through the proliferative and steroidogenic effects of FSH and LH on granulosa and theca cells, from which most sex-cord stromal tumors are derived.