Objective: To analyze the clinical trends of gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) in a public hospital of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Study design: A review of the clinical records of 358 patients with a diagnosis of GTD admitted to Durand Trophoblastic Disease Center between 1990 and February 2011 was performed. Features of diagnosis, treatment and follow-up were analyzed.
Results: A total of 358 cases of GTD were reviewed. Hydatidiform mole was diagnosed in 340 patients; of those 223 (66%) experienced spontaneous remission after evacuation. Of the 135 patients with persistent gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN), 99 (73%) had low-risk GTN, 32 (26%) had high-risk GTN and 4 had either placental site trophoblastic disease or epithelioid trophoblastic tumor. In the low-risk group the first-line treatment was methotrexate and the second-line treatment was actinomycin D, etoposide, cytoxan, and oncovin (EMA/CO), with a complete response rate of 100%. High-risk patients whose WHO prognostic scores were 7-13 were treated initially with EMA/CO. Patients whose scores were >13 were treated with EMA/PE, where platinum and etoposide replaced oncovin and cytoxan. Salvage therapy in patients with relapse or resistant disease were treated with a wide variety of chemotherapy regimens. The complete response rate was 98.2%. Compliance was 100%. Three patients died. In all cases the outcome was related with inadequate initial treatment.
Conclusion: This protocol is in agreement with international consensus. It was useful, safe and feasible in our population. The compliance with international guidelines allows reach a successful treatment and follow-up in one Latin-American population.