Bowel resection rate but not bowel related morbidity is decreased after interval debulking surgery compared to primary surgery in patents with stage IIIC–IV ovarian cancer

OBJECTIVE: To assess the morbidity associate with rectosigmoid resection (RSR) in patients with stage IIIC–IV ovarian cancer (OC) undergone primary debulking surgery (PDS) vs. interval debulking surgery (IDS) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). METHODS: From the Oxford Advanced OC database, we retrieved all patients who underwent surgery between January 2009 and July 2016 and included all patients who underwent RSR. We compared the rates of overall related and not-related morbidity and bowel diversion in patients undergone RSR during PDS vs. IDS. RESULTS: Three hundred and seventy-one patients underwent surgery: 126 in PDS group and 245 in IDS group. Fifty-two patients in the PDS group (41.3%) and 65 patients in IDS group (26.5%) underwent RSR (p<0.001). Overall not related morbidity rate was 37.5% and 28.6%, p=0.625. Bowel specific complications affected 16.3% vs. 11.1% of the patients (p=0.577). IDS group had higher rate of bowel diversion compared with PDS (46.0% vs. 26.5%, p=0.048). CONCLUSION: NACT was associated to an overall reduced rate of RSR compared to IDS. No differences in overall related and not-related complications in patients requiring RSR were seen between the 2 groups. Patients in the IDS group had a significantly higher rate of bowel diversion.