Interferon after surgery for women with advanced (Stage II‐IV) epithelial ovarian cancer

Background Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a life‐threatening disease. Most often women become symptomatic only in the advanced stages of the disease, increasing the difficulty of treatment. Whilst the disease responds well to surgery and chemotherapy, the relapse rate is high. New treatments to prevent disease recurrence or progression, prolong survival, and increase the quality of life are needed. Objectives To assess the effectiveness and safety of interferon after surgery in the treatment of advanced (stage II‐IV) EOC. Search methods The Cochrane Gynaecological Cancer Review Group Specialized Register, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) Issue 1, 2012, MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched to January 2012. Handsearching of conference proceedings was also undertaken. Reference lists of reviews and included trials were screened and experts in the field were contacted for additional trials. Clinical trials registers were searched for ongoing trials. Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) involving participants with advanced EOC that compared post‐operative chemotherapy alone with post‐operative interferon therapy in combination with chemotherapy or post‐operative chemotherapy followed by interferon or observation alone Data collection and analysis Two review authors (AL and AM) independently screened the search results for relevant trials and extracted pre‐specified information from each included trial. Data were managed using Review Manager 5.1. Hazard ratios (HR) were calculated for time‐to‐event outcomes and risk ratios (RR) for dichotomous outcomes, with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI). Main results Five trials, including 1476 participants, were included in the review. Two trials compared interferon with observation alone and three trials compared interferon plus chemotherapy with chemotherapy alone. A meta‐analysis of two trials involving 370 participants found no significant difference in both overall survival (HR 1.14, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.55) and progression free survival (HR 0.99, 95% CI 0.79 to 1.24) between the interferon and observation alone groups in post‐surgical women who had undergone first‐line chemotherapy for advanced EOC. One trial with 293 participants found that while no significant difference was observed in incidence of nausea or vomiting between the two treatment groups, significantly more flu‐like symptoms (RR 2.25, 95% CI 1.73 to 2.91) and fatigue (RR 1.54, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.88) were re