Long-term disease-free survival effected by gemcitabine in a heavily pretreated patient with recurrent ovarian carcinoma

Introduction: Gemcitabine has been shown to have modest activity and low and well-tolerated toxicity in heavily pretreated patients with recurrent ovarian carcinoma. Case report: A 46-year-old patient with recurrent ovarian carcinoma who failed with two previous lines of chemotherapy has for the last 40 months received third-line chemotherapy with gemcitabine. This has resulted in an extraordinary long-term disease-free survival of 38 months. Toxicity has been low and well tolerated. Conclusion: Gemcitabine seems to be an attractive agent for salvage chemotherapy in ovarian carcinoma patients who failed with prior lines of chemotherapy.