Objective The aim of this study was to compare overall survival (OS) of women with advanced ovarian cancer treated with primary debulking surgery (PDS) or neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) using a large national cohort.

Methods The 1998–2011 National Cancer Database was queried to identify women with stage III or IV ovarian cancer treated with multiagent chemotherapy and stage-appropriate surgery. Overall survival was estimated and compared using Kaplan-Meier analysis between women who received PDS followed by multiagent chemotherapy or NAC followed by interval surgery. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model tested for associations of potential explanatory variables with OS. Analyzed confounders included age, composite comorbidity scores, stage, grade, histology, insurance status, income quartile, and race.

Results Overall, 44,907 women (85.9%) underwent PDS, and 7348 women (14.1%) received NAC. Women who received NAC were older (64 vs 61 years, P < 0.001), had higher comorbidity scores (P < 0.001), and more often had stage IV disease (44.1% vs 26.1%, P < 0.001). Median OS was 41.1 (40.5–41.7) months among women who underwent PDS compared with 30.3 (29.3–31.1) months among women who received NAC (log-rank, P < 0.001). Among women with stage III disease, PDS was associated with increased OS compared with NAC (median OS, 44.9 [44.2–45.7] vs 31.4 [30.2–33.0] months; hazard ratio [95% confidence interval], 0.70 [0.66–0.76]; P < 0.001). Among women with stage IV disease, there was no OS difference between PDS and NAC cohorts (median OS, 31.2 [30.4–32.3] vs 28.4 [27.2–30.2] months; hazard ratio [95% confidence interval], 0.93 [0.85–1.02]; P = 0.12).

Conclusions Primary debulking surgery was associated with increased OS among women with stage III but not stage IV ovarian cancer in a nationally representative cohort with low NAC use. If this finding reflects treatment assignment bias, it suggests that providers often well select candidates for PDS rather than NAC, although median OS times remain low.