Dr William Cliby Explains Predictors of Patient Outcomes in Ovarian Cancer

William Cliby, MD, consultant, division of gynecologic surgery, department of obstetrics & gynecology, Mayo Clinic, discusses predictors of overall outcomes and survival in patients with ovarian cancer.

Transcript

What are the predictors of surgical outcomes that you have identified in ovarian cancer?

So, we’ve looked at, both nationally and within our own institution at Mayo Clinic, factors that predict outcomes in ovarian cancer. So, overall outcomes are predicted by things like the volume of the operating center, so how many patients with ovarian cancer did they take care of. The next biggest one is adherence to national guidelines; the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for how to manage ovarian cancer. Both of those are very important for overall outcomes, and I’m talking about survival in ovarian cancer. So, patients are better served by being cared for in expert centers that adhere to these guidelines.

More specifically, when we’ve looked at our own institutional data, what we observe is that outcomes that predict overall survival best are things like patient factors: their underlying health, what stage of cancer do they show up with. But, then the things we can control, like surgical outcomes, such as amount of residual disease, is very important for overall survival in ovarian cancer.