Is there a correlation of positive peritoneal washing cytology during interval debulking surgery on the survival outcomes of ovarian cancer patients? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic impact of peritoneal washing cytology (PWC) on progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients undergoing interval debulking surgery (IDS) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) for ovarian cancer (OC). We systematically searched Medline (1966-2020), Scopus (2004-2020), EMBASE (1980-2020), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials CENTRAL (1999-2020), Clinicaltrials.gov (2008-2020) and Google Scholar (2004-2020). All the studies that investigated the correlation of peritoneal washing cytology with survival outcomes of patients undergoing interval debulking for ovarian cancer, were finally included in the present meta-analysis. A total of 7 retrospective studies were included, comprising 907 patients, of whom 535 had positive peritoneal washing cytology on interval debulking surgery. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed as moderate, primarily due to the lack of data referring to the adequacy of the follow-up of patients and secondarily due the lack of comparability of patients. Progression - free survival was significantly better in the negative peritoneal cytology group (HR 2.07, 95% CI 1.73, 2.48 respectively), however, overall survival did not reach a significant difference among the two groups (HR 1.90, 95% CI 0.99, 3,65, p = 0.052). Our data support a negative correlation between positive peritoneal washing cytology at interval debulking surgery and the survival of ovarian cancer patients.