Introduction Given the importance of symptom control, expedited investigations, and timely initiation of oncologic treatment in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer, we developed a physician- and nurse navigator-led Ovarian Tumor Surgical Program. Our study aimed to evaluate outcome measures after introduction of the program.

Methods Retrospective cohort study comparing epithelial ovarian cancer patients in the Ovarian Tumor Surgical Program from Jan-May 2023 to a similar group treated from Jan 2016-Dec 2017 before program optimization. Patient and treatment characteristics were registered. Continuous variables were compared by student t-test, categorical data compared by Chi-squared test.

Results Our analysis involved 115 patients: 60 before the Ovarian Tumor Surgical Program (Control) and 55 after (ON-Program). The patients in the ON-Program had a statistically significant reduction in time from referral to first appointment (8.6 vs. 12.3 days, p = 0.013). Furthermore, patients in the ON-program had a statistically significant shorter time to start treatment (16.0 vs 22.3 days, p = 0.003), with a 25.0% decrease in time to PCS (30.5 vs 40.4 days, p = 0.267). NACT start times showed no significant difference (24.7 vs 25.2 days, p = 0.854). In the ON-Program, 100% underwent germline genetic testing, compared to 93.1% in the control, resulting in significantly faster reported results (109 vs 336 days, p < 0.001).

Conclusion/Implications The Introduction of a systematic, comprehensive ovarian tumor surgical program led to improved clinical outcome measures in patients with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer.