†These authors contributed equally.
Academic Editor: Shigeki Matsubara
Background: High grade serous cancers (HGSC) of gynecological
origin can be treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and subsequent
interval debulking surgery (IDS) when upfront surgery is not feasible.
Chemotherapy response score (CRS) was proposed to evaluate on pathological
specimens at IDS the response to NACT. Objective: We aim to
assess survival outcomes stratified by CRS in HGSC patients and to explore
interaction with residual disease (RD) after surgery. Methods: We identified all consecutive patients with HGSC at advanced stage (FIGO
III–IV) that underwent NACT and IDS. We collected baseline data as well as
survival data such as disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). CRS
was assessed on adnexal and omental specimens based on a three-tier
classification. We conducted multivariate cox regression analyses of CRS
classifications (CRS 1 vs 2 vs 3, CRS 1+2 vs 3 and CRS 1 vs 2+3) using RD as
covariate. Results: We enrolled 47 patients with a median
follow-up of 25 months (IQR: 11–78). RD after IDS failed to correlate with DFS
(p = 0.73) and OS (p = 0.93). Adnexal CRS 2 (HR 0.4; 95% CI
0.2–1.0; p = 0.05) and CRS 3 (HR 0.30; 95% CI 0.11–0.65; p =
0.04) correlated with longer DFS. Moreover, CRS 2 (HR 0.12; 95% CI 0.04–0.33;
p