Routine use of radiogold following operation for ovarian cancer

Seventy-four patients with malignant ovarian neoplasm have been treated at two Portland hospitals by the combined use of definitive surgery and intraperitoneal radioactive gold instillation over an 11 year period. Fifty-two of these patients have been followed from 3 to 11 years. The over-all survival rates are 43.9 per cent. A survival rate of 75 per cent was obtained in Class IIB, but in the presence of far-advanced lesions (Class IV) there were no survivors. Prevention or relief of ascites formation was accomplished in 84.3 per cent of patients who died. Complications from the use of gold in our hands have been mild and transient. While other methods of treatment, such as chemotherapy, have recently appeared, none seemed to have any great advantage over the combination of surgery and routine radiogold.