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Objective The prognosis of ovarian cancer has improved because of platinum- and taxane-containing chemotherapy. We investigated the 5-year disease-specific overall survival and prognostic factors of patients with advanced ovarian cancer to elucidate the change in clinical course of ovarian cancer with the advance of chemotherapy for patients who developed relapse in the era before the addition of molecular targeting therapy. Methods We reviewed the clinical course of 134 patients with advanced ovarian cancer (FIGO Stage III and IV) treated in the past 11 years (1999-2010). We classified the patients into two groups: those who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer from 1999 to 2005 (Group A) and those who had been diagnosed from 2006 to 2010 (Group B). We compared the 5-year disease-specific overall survival and median survival rates between these two groups. We also investigated the prognostic factors of 104 patients who developed relapse. Results The 5-year disease-specific overall survival rate was significantly higher in Group B than A (67.0% vs. 38.6%; P = 0.032). Chemotherapy containing pegylated liposomal doxorubicin hydrochloride, non-clear cell adenocarcinoma and intestinal resection were independent prognostic factors. Conclusions The induction of new chemotherapeutic drugs and the increased variation of second- or third-line chemotherapy affected the improvement in overall survival of patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.

We have developed a collaborative hospital-based approach to monitoring the impact of a human papillomavirus vaccine on cervical cancer, its precursor lesions and human papillomavirus type-specific prevalence in Japan. The monitoring will be conducted for a total period of 21 years on women aged