COMPARISON OF ULTRASOUND-GUIDED TRUCUT NEEDLE BIOPSY AND LAPAROSCOPY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF HIGH-GRADE SEROUS OVARIAN CANCER

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to compare tru-cut biopsy with laparoscopy in the diagnosis of high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) in our clinic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Our retrospective study included patients who underwent surgery for HGSC between January 2013 and December 2023. Patients with pathologically confirmed (FIGO 2018) stage III or IV HGSC underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and interval debulking surgery (IDS) were performed. Exclusion criteria were patients with stage I and II ovarian cancer and who did not receive NACT. Additionally, patients with non-high-grade serous ovarian cancer or non-gynecological conditions were excluded. As a result, 60 patients were included in the study. Participants were categorized into two groups, namely, Group 1 (Patients diagnosed with HGSC by tru-cut biopsy before NACT) and Group 2 (Patients diagnosed with HGSC by diagnostic laparoscopy before NACT). Time-to-event analyses were conducted using the Kaplan- Meier method and log-rank test. Statistical significance was defined when p < 0.05. RESULTS: Out of the 60 patients, 32 patients were diagnosed by tru-cut biopsy and 28 patients with laparoscopy. The overall survival (OS) of Group 1 was 53.1%, and for Group 2, it was 71.4% (p = 0.371). The progression-free survival (PFS) rate was 56.3 for Group 1 and 64.3% for Group 2 (p = 0.464). No significant difference was detected in terms of recurrence, OS and PFS. We found a significant difference between Group 1 and Group 2 only in terms of hospitalization time (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: HGSC is a histopathological subgroup of ovarian cancer that is difficult to diagnose and manage. While primary debulking surgery remains in the background, the importance of tru-cut biopsy in terms of short hospital stay should not be forgotten in the diagnostic evaluation of patients.