Objective: To determine the clinicopathological characteristics of borderline ovarian tumors and to evaluate their prognostic factors and pregnancy rates/fertility outcomes after conservative surgery.
Methods: A total of 186 patients with borderline ovarian tumors receiving treatment at our hospital from 1990 to 2007 were retrospectively studied and followed-up post-operatively for at least six months. The effects of clinicopathological characteristics upon recurrence and mortality were analyzed by independent sample t test, Chi-square test, Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard model.
Results: The median follow-up time was 44 months. One hundred and nine patients underwent conservative surgery and 77 patients underwent radical surgery. Thirty-one relapses were reported. Only 3 died of disease. As demonstrated by multivariate analysis, surgical procedure, stage and pseudomyxoma peritonei were the independent prognostic factors for recurrence.
Conclusion: The recurrence rate of conservative surgery is higher than that of radical surgery. However, conservative surgery is safe as it does not result in a higher mortality rate.