Objective To compare the clinical efficacy of patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer(AEOC) treated by primary debulking surgery (PDS) and neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT), and to explore the clinical characteristics of patients with different prognosis.

Methods We analyzed retrospectively the clinical data of 129 AEOC patients. Patients were divided into neoadjuvant chemotherapy and interval debulking surgery (NACT-IDS) group(n=69) and PDS group(n=60) according to the treatment regimen.

Results There was no significant difference in the average operative time, blood loss, incidence of complications or postoperative hospital stay between NACT-IDS group and PDS group (P > 0.05). The rate of optimal debulking for NACT-IDS group and PDS group were 82.6% and 58.3% (P=0.002). There was no significant difference in the OS and PFS between two groups. Taken age, clinical stage and pathologic type as the distinguishing criteria alone, there was no significant difference in the prognosis between two groups (P > 0.05). When we analyzed these clinical characteristics in combination, the OS only had a statistically significant differencewhen patients with stage Ⅲ reached the goal of optimal debulking between two groups (P=0.030).

Conclusion For patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer, PDS is recommended for patients with stage Ⅲ who can reach the goal of optimal debulking via PDS after evaluation, and the NACT implementation standards could be relaxed for other patients.