Cytoreductive surgery is well established in patients with primary ovarian cancer. The benefit of surgery in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer remains a controversial matter. There is a large heterogeneity in surgical results published in the literature, possibly caused by infrastructure, surgeons' philosophy and belief in adding various surgical skills. This might also be a result of different preoperative selection procedures. Further questions to be addressed are the definition of surgical end points and whether there are predictive factors for a successful surgery. The surgical end point in recurrent ovarian cancer should be complete resection. Predictive factors could help identify patients in whom complete resection is possible.
