Objective In this study, we aimed to demonstrate the characteristics, recurrence rates, survival, and factors associated with survival of patients with serous borderline ovarian tumor (BOT) who were operated on in a single institution. Our secondary goal was to evaluate the necessity of staging surgery and the importance of a comprehensive lymphadenectomy in these patients.

Materials and Methods The patients who were diagnosed in our institution between January 1990 and April 2014 with a final diagnosis of serous BOT were evaluated retrospectively. Kaplan-Meier method was used for analysis of progression-free survival (PFS). Univariate Cox proportional hazards model and log rank test were used for analysis of continuous and categorical variables affecting survival, respectively.

Results One hundred twenty-one (75%) patients underwent staging surgery. Stage I disease was observed in 63%, stage III was observed in 11% of the patients, and only 0.6% of patients had stage II disease. Among 162 patients, 72 patients (44%) had conservative surgery. Eight (4.9%) patients had recurrence, one of which was invasive. All recurrences were in the patients who had conservative surgery. Median follow-up of the patients was 57 months (range, 37–270 years). Five- and 10-year PFS rates were 94.9% and 92.8%, respectively. In the univariate analysis of patients with serous BOT, PFS was worse in the presence of positive para-aortic lymph nodes, positive abdominal cytology, and conservative surgery (P = 0.008, P < 0.001, P = 0.007, respectively). The patients having noninvasive implant and advanced-stage disease had a tendency to have worse PFS (P = 0.067, P = 0.069, respectively).

Conclusions Staging surgery generally gives us an idea of the probability of recurrence but not an idea of overall survival. Therefore, staging surgery including lymphadenectomy could be suggested to have information about the probability of recurrence and to be able to detect patients with an invasive implant that is the only probable factor affecting overall survival.