Frequent disease progression and early recurrence in patients with familial ovarian cancer primarily treated with paclitaxel and cis- or carboplatin (preliminary report).

To evaluate frequencies of early disease progressions and recurrences in patients with familial vs sporadic ovarian cancers following primary paclitaxel/cis- or carboplatin chemotherapy.,The frequencies of disease progression up to six months following primary paclitaxel/cis- or carboplatin and of early disease recurrences were analysed in 18 Stage III patients with familial ovarian cancers, both carriers and non-carriers of 5382 insC BRCA1 mutation, and in 35 patients with Stage III sporadic ovarian tumors.,Progressive disease within first six months following chemotherapy developed in 5/18 patients with familial cancers vs. 5/35 patients with sporadic tumors. Early disease recurrences (up to 6 months after treatment) occurred in 3/18 patients with familial vs. 2/35 patients with sporadic tumors. Recurrences after 7-12 months following treatment occurred, respectively, in 3/13 and 3/31 patients from these groups.,The results of this preliminary report may suggest that patients with familial ovarian tumors respond less favourably to paclitaxel/cis- or carboplatin treatment than patients with sporadic ovarian tumors. These findings should be however confirmed in a prospective study on a larger group of patients.