Introduction/Background For patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), relative 5-year survival rate over all stages is 40%. Long-term survival in advanced disease is observed only in a small proportion of patients with little improvements over the past years. We aimed to identify tumor and patient characteristics of FIGO stage III or IV patients in our cohort, who survived at least 8 years.

Methodology Monocentric retrospective study at a tertiary care university hospital center. Between 2006 and 2012, maximum effort primary debulking surgery at the Department of Gynecology of Jena University Hospital was conducted in 156 advanced stage ovarian carcinoma patients. Follow up data were screened to identify patients, who were still alive 8 years after diagnosis.

Results 16 patients with stage III or IV disease and complete medical records were still alive 8 years after diagnosis. Of these, 15 had tumors with serous histology (high grade: 9, low grade: 4, unknown grade: 3) and one had adenocarcinoma of unknown origin. FIGO stage IIIC was found in 10 patients, stage IV in 4 patients and two patients presented with stage IIIB. Complete cytoreduction (CC0) was achieved at primary debulking surgery in 12 patients, while in 4 patients there was macroscopic residual tumor (CC3). Of these, 3 had high grade carcinoma. At primary surgery, tumor was detected in lymph nodes of 10 long survivors (missing information in 4 patients). Recurrence (at 2.4, 2.9 and 5.0 years after diagnosis, resp.) occurred in three patients (19%).

Conclusion Tumor characteristics of long-term survivors of advanced stage ovarian carcinoma are unfavorable in some cases. Currently we work on characterization of genetic and medical specifics of these patients in order to understand the reasons for their resilience.