The Value of Contrast-Enhanced CT in the Detection of Residual Disease After Neo-Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Ovarian Cancer

Rationale and objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) in predicting residual disease following neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in stage III/IV ovarian cancer.

Materials and methods: This was a retrospective observational cohort study including consecutive patients with primary stage III/IV ovarian cancer who received NACT before interval debulking surgery. CT findings before interval debulking surgerywere correlated with histological/surgical findings. Diagnostic characteristics were calculated on patient-based and lesion-based analyses. False negative results on peritoneal carcinomatosis detection were correlated with lesion size and site.

Results: On patient-based analysis, CT (n = 58) had a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of 92.16%, 57.14%, 94.00%, 50.00%, and 87.93%. On lesion-based analysis, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were 63.01%, 73.47%, 82.51%, 50.00%, and 66.51%. False negative results were associated with lesion size (p < 0.001). The diagnostic performance of CT on the detection of peritoneal carcinomatosis was low at the subdiaphragmatic spaces, bowel serosa and mesentery (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: CT had low negative predictive value in determining residual disease following NACT on both patient-based and lesion-based analyses, especially for non-measurable lesions and at the subdiaphragmatic spaces, bowel serosa and mesentery.