Patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) who did not receive surgical treatment experienced significantly worsened survival and these patients may be at risk for poor access to gynecologic oncology care. This according to a study of 210,667 patients between 2003 and 2011 with EOC. 82% received surgical treatment and 95% of patients treated non-surgically had stage III, stage IV, or unknown stage disease. Researchers found:

• Black race and uninsured status were significantly associated with non-surgical treatment.

• Median survival time was 57.4 months for surgery with or without systemic treatment vs 11.9 months for systemic treatment alone, and 1.4 months for no treatment.

• Relative to surgical treatment, the adjusted hazard ratio for death associated with systemic treatment alone was 1.9; HR for untreated patients was 4.7.

• Among 29,921 patients aged >75 years with stage III/IV disease, 21.5% received only systemic treatment; 22.8% were untreated.