Results after conservative treatment of serous borderline tumors of the ovary with a micropapillary pattern

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the outcomes of patients treated conservatively for a serous borderline ovarian tumor with micropapillary patterns (SBOT-MP). Methods: Retrospective study collecting cases of conservative treatment of SBOT-MP. There are 15 patients treated with conservative management for a stage I (n = 8) or III (n = 7) SBOT-MP. Eight patients underwent a unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy with a contralateral cystectomy, three a unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, two a cystectomy, and two a bilateral cystectomy. Four patients had stromal microinvasion associated with MP at histological examination of the ovarian tumor. Noninvasive implants were observed in eight patients and invasive implants in one. Three patients had residual disease <1 cm on the peritoneum. One patient received adjuvant chemotherapy. Results: After a median interval of 63 months (range, 18-120 months), 11 recurrences were observed: six of them exclusively on the ovary, three exclusively on the peritoneum (invasive peritoneal disease in one), and two on the ovary and peritoneum. One of the last two patients succumbed to the recurrence (under the form of invasive adenocarcinoma). The other patients were actually disease free. Five patients achieved eight spontaneous pregnancies. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that spontaneous pregnancies can be achieved after conservative treatment of SBOT-MP. Nevertheless, as 2/3 of patients had bilateral ovarian involvement at the time of initial management, the recurrence rate is high. However, making definitive conclusions about the safety of conservative surgery is limited by the small sample size. So, further studies are warranted to evaluate conservative management of advanced-stage disease.