Second Thoughts about Second-Look Laparotomy in Advanced Ovarian Cancer

Abstract

Since the early 1970s, second-look surgery has played a central part in studies of chemotherapy and radiation treatment for ovarian cancer of an advanced stage. Although the operation has been used extensively to evaluate the benefit of other types of treatment, the survival benefit of second-look surgery itself has not been demonstrated in a randomized trial.^{1 2 3 4} Nevertheless, second-look laparotomy has become an established practice in the community at large.^{4 5 6 7} Many women in the United States now undergo this major abdominopelvic operation, although its widespread use has become increasingly controversial.^{8 , 9} Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancer . . .