Adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with operable granulosa cell tumors of the ovary: a surveillance, epidemiology, and end results cohort study

Adjuvant chemotherapy is recommended for patients with resected high‐risk adult granulosa cell tumors (GCT), although strong data to support this are lacking. The objective of this study was to assess the outcomes of GCT patients, with the specific focus on patients that received adjuvant chemotherapy with curative intent (stage I‐III), reported in a large national cancer registry. Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database between 2000 and 2013 were used for analysis. Patient and disease characteristics were extracted and analyzed for association with administration of chemotherapy. Impact on disease‐specific survival (DSS) was analyzed using log‐rank test. A total of 739 patients with surgically treated adult GCT were identified. Median age was 51 years. 570 (77%) patients were stage I, 87 (12%) were stage II, and 82 (11%) were stage III. Adjuvant chemotherapy was administered to 176 (24%) patients. Young age, higher stage, and hysterectomy were associated with chemotherapy administration. Higher disease stage was associated with decreased five‐year DSS (IA/B 98.5%, IC 95.1%, II 86.1%, III 83.5%, P < 0.01). Notably, administration of adjuvant chemotherapy was not associated with improved five‐year DSS (P = 0.45) regardless of disease stage (stage IA/B: 96% with chemotherapy vs. 99% without chemotherapy; P = 0.64), (stage IC: 97% with chemotherapy vs. 94% without chemotherapy; P = 0.49), (stage II: 89% with chemotherapy vs. 83% without chemotherapy; P = 0.56), (stage III: 73% with chemotherapy vs. 93% without chemotherapy; P = 0.18). In this analysis, chemotherapy was not found to be associated with improved DSS of patients with operable disease regardless of stage, questioning the role for adjuvant chemotherapy in GCT.