Postoperatively, 13 patients with stage III ovarian cancer received a combination of carboplatin and epirubicin (PE) at 300 and 60 mg/m2 respectively. The results of the 13 patients receiving the PE regimen were retrospectively compared to those of 24 patients who received the conventional PAC schedule (cisplatin, Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide at a dosage of 50, 50 and 750 mg/m2, respectively). All 37 patients had undergone radical debulking surgery including pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy. At 8 months, relapse-free rates of 42.2 and 79.2% were observed in the PE and PAC groups, respectively. This difference was highly significant (p = 0.011). The data suggest that the PE combination has less antineoplastic activity than the PAC schedule and thus cannot be recommended in the adjuvant treatment of advanced ovarian cancer.