Background  Correct drug selection, the key to successful chemotherapy, is one of the most difficult clinical decisions for the treatment of platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer worldwide. The exact procedures for choosing drugs are undefined, currently relying on clinical trials and personal experience, which often results in disappointing outcomes. Here, we propose a new drug selection method, the “predictive molecule targeted routine chemotherapy”, to choose relatively sensitive routine drugs and avoid relatively resistant routine drugs based on the specific predictive molecule expression of the individual tumor tissue.
Methods  From January 2004 to June 2008, 26 cases of platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer were prospectively recruited. Their routine chemotherapy drug choice was based on the expression of 6 predictive molecules (including p53) as determined by immunohistochemistry (the predictive molecule targeted routine chemotherapy group). A further 18 cases of platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer were treated by experience and formed the control group. The response rate and the overall survival were compared between the two groups.
Results  The response rate to second-line chemotherapy was 28% in the control group and 77% in the predictive molecule targeted routine chemotherapy group (P=0.002). The response rate to third-line chemotherapy was 14% in the control group and 33% in the predictive molecule targeted routine chemotherapy group (P=0.268). The median overall survival of the predictive molecule targeted routine chemotherapy group (88 weeks) was significantly longer than the median overall survival of the control group (56 weeks) (P=0.0315).
Conclusion  The predictive molecule targeted routine chemotherapy is a new effective protocol for choosing drugs when treating platinum-resistant recurrent ovarian cancer.