Safety of ovarian preservation in premenopausal women with endometrial cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Oophorectomy is commonly performed in premenopausal women with endometrial cancer who undergo hysterectomy. The benefits of oophorectomy in this setting are unknown, and the procedure subjects women to the long-term sequelae of estrogen deprivation. We examined the safety of ovarian preservation in young women with endometrial cancer who underwent hysterectomy.


METHODS
Women < or = 45 years of age with stage I endometrial cancer recorded from 1988 to 2004 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Database were examined. We developed Cox proportional hazards models and Kaplan-Meier curves to compare women who underwent oophorectomy with those who had ovarian preservation.


RESULTS
A total of 3,269 women, including 402 patients (12%) who had ovarian preservation, were identified. Younger age (P < .0001), later year of diagnosis (P = .04), residence in the eastern United States (P = .02), and low tumor grade (P < .0001) were associated with ovarian preservation. In a multivariate Cox model, ovarian preservation had no effect on either cancer-specific (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.14 to 2.44) or overall (HR = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.34 to 1.35) survival. The findings were unchanged when women who received pelvic radiotherapy were excluded.


CONCLUSIONS
Ovarian preservation in premenopausal women with early-stage endometrial cancer may be safe and not associated with an increase in cancer-related mortality.
Wright
Jason D
JD
Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, 161 Fort Washington Ave, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10032, USA. jw2459@columbia.edu
Buck
Adam M
AM
Shah
Monjri
M
Burke
William M
WM
Schiff
Peter B
PB
Herzog
Thomas J
TJ
D000328:Adult; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D010052:Ovariectomy; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models