Dr. Boisen on Scoring System for Optimal Debulking in Ovarian Cancer

Michelle M. Boisen, MD, assistant professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, Magee-Womens Hospital, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hillman Cancer Center, discusses the scoring system for optimal debulking in ovarian cancer.

A few trials were published that looked at developing a scoring system to predict how likely a patient would be successfully optimally debulked, says Boisen. The goal of all these surgies is to get patients to <1 cm of residual disease with, ideally, no visible residual disease. A scoring system was developed based on the location of patients’ disease and determined that if a patient has a score of <8 versus >8, then their chance of being optimally debulked is “X.”

At UPMC, something similar is done where a scope is put in and it's used to assess the disease on the diaphragm, the liver surface, and the stomach. Then patients are scored and triaged based on that information, concludes Boisen.