Does age contrast in clinical characteristics and pattern of care in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer?
Older women who present with the same distribution of stages as their younger counterparts are likely to be treated more conservatively than younger ovarian cancer patients. In this study, however, when surgery was performed, the optimal tumor debulking rates were similar in each group. Although high morbidity, most often hematological toxicity, occurs in elderly patients following chemotherapy, the overall RR compared favorably with that of younger patients.
These results support the pivotal role for DPP IV and NEP in the malignant transformation pathways and point to these peptidases as potential diagnostic markers.