Objective: To present a review of clinical prognostic factors in ovarian cancer.
Subject: Review.
Setting: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical Faculty Hradec Králové, Charles University, Prague; Department of Clinical Oncology, Medical Faculty Hradec Králové, Charles University, Prague; Bristol-Myers Squibb, Department of Oncology, Prague.
Subject and method: Discussion about current evidence from literature.
Conclusion: Epithelial ovarian cancers are characterized by a broad spectrum of biological behavior ranging from tumors that have an excellent prognosis and high likelihood of cure to those that progress rapidly and have a very poor prognosis. This wide clinical spectrum is partly reflected by a number of clinical prognostic variables. The most important of these clinical factors is stage, volume of residual tumor remaining after surgical resection, performance status and age, interval between end of primary therapy and beginning of recurrence, drug resistance.