MicroFluO: FLUorescence-guided Surgery for Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancers (EOC) are discovered in 75% of cases at an advanced stage, marked by the presence of peritoneal carcinomatosis. It has been shown that one of the main prognostic factors is the achievement of a macroscopically complete cytoreductive surgery, i.e. without visible peritoneal metastasis at the end of the procedure. The prognosis of patients is inversely correlated to the tumor residue at the end of the procedure, and 60% of patients present a peritoneal recurrence within two years after the initial management. This suggests that microscopic peritoneal metastases may be present that are not eradicated by surgery and not controlled by systemic chemotherapy. Their presence could be involved in the mechanisms leading to the occurrence of peritoneal recurrence.

The MicroPCI protocol (NCT03754569), showed that microscopic peritoneal metastases were present at the end of macroscopically complete surgery of advanced-stage EOC in 98.14% of cases.This naturally lead to the question of the impact of microscopic cytoreduction on the prognosis of patients. Fluorescence detection of peritoneal metastases after intravenous injection of indocyanine green (ICG) and their resection have already been evaluated with promising results in digestive and ovarian carcinomas.

The objective of the MicroFluO protocol is to propose on the one hand a diagnostic time by fluorescence during the laparoscopic evaluation performed to define the resectability of the peritoneal carcinomatosis and also at the end of the macroscopically complete cytoreductive surgery to perform the biopsy of the fluorescent areas suspected of presenting residual microscopic peritoneal metastases.

Patients diagnosed with peritoneal carcinomatosis undergo exploratory laparoscopy, during which lesion mapping is performed to assess the resectability of the lesions. A biopsy is performed during this procedure to confirm the histological diagnosis. An initial fluorescence mapping will be performed at this diagnostic time.

Once cytoreductive surgery has been performed, intravenous injection of ICG is performed according to the manufacturer's recommendations. Peritoneal lesions emitting a fluorescent signal will be sampled. These samples will be studied in anatomopathology under the same conditions as the other surgical parts.

No increase in morbidity is expected in relation to this study. The number of specimens taken is dependent on the peritoneal tumor burden.