This trial was designed as a follow-up study to the GOG 111 study. The landmark GOG 111 study, completed in 1996, showed that the median survival time of women with advanced ovarian cancer was extended by over 50 percent when patients received paclitaxel plus cisplatin as first-line chemotherapy. This large, well-controlled GOG study represented the first trial in 15 years, since cisplatin was developed and incorporated as the initial therapy of ovarian cancer, that showed a notable improvement in survival for ovarian cancer. Over 25,000 new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed and 14,500 women will die from ovarian cancer in 1999, according to estimates from the American Cancer Society. Ovarian cancer accounts for four percent of all cancers among women and ranks second among gynecological cancers.
Ovarian cancer is the most deadly cancer of the female reproductive system.
The five-year relative survival rate for all stages is 50 percent. The risk for ovarian cancer increases with age and peaks when women are in their seventies. The purpose of the GOG is to improve the treatment of gynecologic cancer. Fox Chase Cancer Center is one of 35 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the nation.