Introduction/Background Despite high response rates to initial treatment, high recurrence rates remain a persistent challenge among patients with ovarian cancer (OC). There is limited data on overall survival (OS) rates and burden of disease with contemporary standard of care. We examined the treatment experience of real-world patients in the United States (U.S).

Methodology Using a single-arm retrospective cohort study design, we identified OC patients from the SEER-Medicare database, aged ≥66 years and had completed 4–10 cycles of platinum-based first-line (1L) chemotherapy from January 2009 to December 2015. The descriptive outcomes were OS rates, rates of hospitalization, mean number of hospitalizations and length of hospital stay (LOS), receipt of bevacizumab, proportion of patients who initiated non-platinum therapies, and transition rates through lines of therapy at 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-year landmarks.

Results We identified 2,262 patients (mean age was 74.6±6.2 years). 29.9 of patients had ≥1 non-cancer comorbidity. 90.2% of patients were white.

At 1 year after initiating chemotherapy, 90.7% of patients were alive, 56.1% were hospitalized at least once with a mean LOS of 16 days; 10.2% had received bevacizumab and 20.5% had initiated a non-platinum-based therapy. At 4 years, 44.1% of patients were alive, 72.6% were hospitalized at least once with a mean LOS of 22 days; 31% had received bevacizumab and 56.2% had initiated a non-platinum-based therapy. The proportion of patients who had died, completed or were receiving 3 or more lines of therapy increased from 10.1% at 1 year to 74.2% at 4 years from initiating chemotherapy. Among 1,538 patients with known treatment or mortality status at 4 years, 251 (16.3%) had not received additional treatment following their initial course of chemotherapy.

Conclusion The increasing burden of therapy and hospitalizations over time demonstrate the need for more effective front-line therapies to delay progression in ovarian cancer.

Disclosure G Adeboyeje, K Desai, S Iqbal, J He, M Monberg are employees of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA. This study was funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA.