Fig. 1.

Comparison of clinical characteristics of patients with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC) treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and interval cytoreductive surgery (NAC) or primary cytoreductive surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy (PCS). (A) No significant difference in tumour stage was observed between the adjuvant and neoadjuvant groups. (B) Patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were significantly older (Student t test, p = 0.004). (C) Significantly more patients in the neoadjuvant group were optimally debulked (< 1 cm residual disease) than in the adjuvant group (Fisher exact test, p = 0.025). (D) Patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy are more likely to demonstrate resistance to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy (i.e., progress on therapy or recurrence within 6 mo of completion of first-line therapy, Fisher exact test, p = 0.001). N/S = nonsignificant.