NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Intraperitoneal chemotherapy may significantly improve long-term survival in ovarian cancer patients, a new study found.

Data from 876 patients followed for a median of 10.7 years found a 17% lower risk of death with intraperitoneal vs standard IV therapy (adjusted hazard ratio 0.83; p=0.02).

“This is the first time we have known the long term, 10-year impact of intraperitoneal chemotherapy. What makes this especially exciting is that this shows that the benefit of IP chemo lasts, and that there really is a benefit in terms of overall survival,” Dr. Jubilee Brown, a gynecologic oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, who was not involved in the study, told Reuters Health by email.

“It is rare to see a big improvement like this,” Dr. Brown said.

Dr. Devansu Tewari from Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Orange County presented the findings March 9 at the annual meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology in Los Angeles.

The researchers analyzed data from two clinical trials by the non-profit research firm, the Gynecologic Oncology Group. They found that patients who underwent IP therapy lived longer than those who underwent standard IV treatment.

Median survival was 61.8 months for IP therapy patients compared to 51.4 months for standard IV treatment (p=0.048).

“These are very encouraging results,” said Dr. John Chan from the University of California, San Francisco, who was involved in the study.

“This long-term survival benefit has never been shown before. We need to encourage our patients to go to centers with the expertise to do IP therapy in order to get better survival benefits,” Dr. Chan told Reuters Health.

The study also identified factors that predict benefit from IP therapy: younger age (aHR: 1.01; p

The treatment can be painful and difficult, and younger patients and those with microscopic residual disease were more likely to complete a full six cycles, the study found. The more cycles completed, the better the survival rate, however.

Women who were able to complete five or six cycles had a five-year survival rate of 59%, compared to 18% for patients who completed only one or two cycles, and 33% for three or four cycles.

This paper points to the importance of looking at individualized treatment for various patients,” Dr. Chan said. “We need to personalize the care of our ovarian cancer patients. Clearly there are opportunities for us to individualize treatment to improve outcomes.”