Second-look Laparoscopy in Patients with Ovarian Cancer

The former widely accepted management for patients with epithelial ovarian cancer consisted of three basic components: (1) initial surgery with complete, thorough staging and debulking of advanced disease; (2) combination platinum-based chemotherapy; and (3) surgical reassessment to determine response to initial therapy.1 The role of primary debulking surgery in some subgroups of patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma has been questioned in recent years.2–5 Second-look surgery for ovarian carcinoma has been abandoned in most centres, because of the lack of a good second-line therapy that might increase overall survival. Intraperitoneal radioactive phosphorus as consolidating therapy in patients with negative second-look laparotomy was associated with a considerable number of bowel complications, without improving the overall survival.6