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OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of maintenance chemotherapy on stage Ⅲ ovarian carcinoma.METHODS A retrospective analysis was conducted of 47 stage Ⅲ ovarian carcinoma patients with clinical complete remission after first-line chemotherapy. Among these patients, 21 cases were treated with maintenance chemotherapy, while the other 26 cases were free of treatment until progression. The 2 groups were compared with respect to progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival(OS).RESULTS The median PFS and OS were not significantly different between the 2 groups. For those patients, in a subgroup of suboptimal surgery (residual disease ＞2 cm), the median PFS was 110 weeks and 56 weeks and the median OS was 223 weeks and 157 weeks for the maintenance and non-treated respectively. Both PFS and OS values favoured the maintenance group, P=0.004 and P=0.015 respectively. In a subgroup of optimal surgery (residual disease ≤2 cm), the differences were not significant.CONCLUSION Patients with stage Ⅲ ovarian carcinoma with clinical complete remission may benefit from maintenance chemotherapy, if the residual disease is ＞2 cm. To those with a residual disease ≤2 cm, the maintenance chemotherapy maybe of no value. So "individualized maintenance chemotherapy" should be conducted in the clinical setting.