Squamous cell carcinoma of the ovary: a rare gynecologic tumor with a poor prognosis

Objectives: Investigate the management and outcomes of patients diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the ovary (SCC-O). Methods: Patients with no history of another tumor diagnosed between 2004-2015 with SCC-O, known tumor stage and at least one month of follow-up were drawn from the National Cancer Database. Clinico-pathological and demographic characteristics were analyzed and overall survival (OS) was evaluated following generation of Kaplan-Meier curves. A Cox model was constructed to evaluate for independent predictors of survival. Results: A total of 440 patients with a median age of 53 years (range 15-90) were identified; 34.3% had stage I disease, while 19.5%, 26.8% and 19.3% had stage II, III and IV disease respectively. Most patients were White (72%) without co-morbidities (82%). Median tumor size was 9.5 cm while tumor grade was available for 370 cases; 52.4% had grade 3 tumors while 39.2% and 8.4% had grade 2 and 1 tumors respectively. Based on 87 patients with apparent early stage disease who underwent lymphadenectomy, lymph node involvement was rare (2%). Five-year OS rate for patients with stage I disease was 75.8% compared to 28.5%, 29.3% and 11.6% for those with stage II, III, IV disease, p Conclusions: SCC-O is a rare tumor with a poor prognosis especially for patients with advanced stage disease. Novel treatment options are greatly warranted.