The safety of tibolone in epithelial ovarian cancer patients

Abstract 

Objectives

We evaluated whether tibolone had an adverse effect on the progression free survival and overall survival of epithelial ovarian cancer patients.

Methods

Forty-two tibolone users and 33 non-users who had been surgically managed for epithelial ovarian cancer at Gil Medical Center, Inchon, Korea, from January 1997 to December 2003 were reviewed retrospectively.

Results

There were no statistically significant differences in age, stage, histology, grade and surgical optimality between tibolone users and non-users. The progression free survival at 36 months was 60.0% among the users compared with 61.5% among the non-users (p=0.92). There was also no significant difference in the overall survival between two groups (p=0.30). For stage IIIc patients according to tibolone using, there were no significant differences in the progression free survival (p=0.86) and overall survival (p=0.36) between tibolone users and non-users.

Conclusions

There was no evidence that tibolone had detrimental effects on the progression free survival and overall survival of epithelial ovarian cancer patients. So, tibolone could be used in these patients.

Keywords: Tibolone, Ovarian cancer patients, Survival