Response of ovarian endodermal sinus tumor to combination chemotherapy with cis-platinum, vincristine and bleomycin or vincristine, actinomycin and cyclophosphamide]

The treatment results of 63 cases of ovarian endodermal sinus tumor admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital from August 1977 through April 1992 by combination chemotherapy were reported. Patients were divided into three groups. The first group received full courses of vincristine, actinomycin and cyclophosphamide (VAC) or cis-platinum, vincristine and bleomycin (PVB) chemotherapy in adequate dosages (37 cases). The second group also received VAC or PVB chemotherapy but in inadequate dosages (17 cases). The third group took no VAC or PVB chemotherapy but some other chemotherapeutic drugs (9 cases). 28 of the 63 patients died. The 35 surviving patients have been followed for 1 to 15 years. The sustained remission rates were 81.1%, 23.5% and 11.1% for the first, second and third group respectively. As the ovarian endodermal sinus tumor is very sensitive to VAC or PVB chemotherapy an extensive or aggressive cytoreductive surgery and retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy seemed to be not necessary. Such a point of view is demonstrated by our preliminary study. The treatment results for the primary cases are significantly better than that of the recurrent cases. The sustained remission rate is 94.7% for the former while that for the latter is 66.7%.