The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical and histopathological features, and to find relationship between treatment modality and prognosis of borderline ovarian tumors.

Ninety-three cases of borderline ovarian tumors that had been treated were reviewed retrospectively.

Histologic types of this study group composed of 67 cases of mucinous borderline tumor, 23 cases of serous borderline tumor, 2 cases of mixed type, and 1 case of Brenner tumor. The mean age was 41.6 years (range 14 to 83), and 41 (44.1%) patients were nullipara. The most common chief complaint was palpable mass (39.8%) and asymptomatic cases were presented in 23 patients (24.7%). The cases of elevated serum CA125 (< or =35 IU/ml) were 25.8% in mucinous type and 61.9% in serous type. Surgical staging was completed in 57 cases and other 36 cases were incompletely staged. 45 cases were managed by conservative surgery. There were 4 cases with recurrence, and all of them were related to conservative surgery. Chemotherapy was given to 40 cases. Mean follow-up period was 27.3 months. One patient expired during follow-up, and overall 5-year survival rate was 95.2%.

Borderline ovarian tumors have a good prognosis. But recurrence rate was high in conservative surgery. In conclusion, careful preoperative evaluations, complete surgical exploration and long-term follow-up after treatment are needed.