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Background: Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death in women with gynecological malignancies. Brain metastases are considered an uncommon metastatic site. Only few data exist on prognostic factors for this patient collective.Patients and methods: A multicenter retrospective chart review was carried out including all patients with histologically confirmed ovarian cancer from six different German hospitals from 1981 to 2008. Overall, 4277 cases of patients with ovarian cancer were screened and patients with brain metastasis were identified and analyzed regarding various clinical variables and survival.Results: A total of 74 women with brain metastases were identified, resulting in an incidence of 1.73%. In multivariate analysis, the following clinical parameters had a significant impact on overall survival: multiple lesions [hazard ratio (HR) 4.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.0–9.7] and low grading (HR 3.1, 95% CI 1.7–5.8) were associated with a negative impact. Platinum sensitivity (HR 0.23, 95% CI 0.12–0.48) was significantly associated with a favorable outcome. Good performance status (60%–80% HR 0.48, 95% CI 0.23–0.99 and 90%–100% HR 0.21, 95% CI 0.08–0.53) also had a positive impact on overall survival.Conclusions: Platinum sensitivity is the most important prognostic factor in patients with ovarian cancer metastatic to the brain. This novel finding should be considered in the strategy of multimodal therapy for brain metastases in ovarian cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background Bone metastases are a rare manifestation in the management of ovarian cancer and thought to be associated with a poor prognosis as sign of distant spread. Only few data exist on this rare condition. The present study aimed to more information on this very distinct patient collective. Patients and methods A retrospective chart review was carried out including all patients who had been treated from 1994 to 2009 for histologically confirmed ovarian, peritoneal and fallopian tube cancer. Overall, 1717 cases were detected and screened. Patients with bone metastasis were identified and analyzed regarding survival as well as various clinical variables. Results A total of 26 women who had been diagnosed with bone metastases ante mortem could be identified, resulting in an incidence of 1.50%. The majority of patients presented multiple bone lesions (80.8%) and bone spread was symptomatic in 62.5% of the cases. Mean overall survival from primary diagnosis of EOC was 50.5 months (range: 2.5–142.5 months). Median overall survival after diagnosis of bone metastases was 7.2 months. When divided into two subsets depending on timepoint diagnosis of bone metastases, there was a significant difference in overall survival. The mean overall survival from primary diagnosis of EOC in the early-onset group (n = 8), defined as occurrence of bone manifestation within 12 months, was 11.2 months. The mean overall survival in the late-onset group (n = 15) was 78.4 months (P = 0.000001). Conclusions The time interval from diagnosis to appearance of bone metastases is a prognostic factor in ovarian cancer. While early onset bone spread has a strong negative prognostic impact, late-onset bone diagnosis of bone metastases hardly influences the prognosis at all. This finding should be considered in the management of patients with bone metastases from ovarian cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]