From the Journals

Fertility-sparing surgery is safe for most with epithelial ovarian cancer


 

FROM CANCER

Most young women with epithelial ovarian cancer can undergo surgery preserving the unaffected ovary and uterus – and thus their fertility – without compromising their survival, a cohort study of more than 9,000 women in Cancer suggests.

“Loss of reproductive capability and surgical menopause can negatively affect survivorship and quality of life among young women with ovarian cancer,” noted the investigators, who were led by Sarah M. Crafton, MD, division of gynecologic oncology, Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh. “ASCO has published guidelines to address the importance of implementing fertility preservation counseling as standard of care for all patients of reproductive age with cancer. However, the safety of such procedures should be thoroughly assessed in ongoing analyses.”

Dr. Crafton and colleagues used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program database and the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to retrospectively identify women 44 years old or younger with a primary epithelial ovarian cancer. The women were classified as having undergone surgery that spared fertility (unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy with uterine preservation) or surgery that did not (bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy with hysterectomy).

Study results, reported in Cancer, were based on 9,017 women – 3,932 from the SEER database and 5,085 from the NCDB – with epithelial ovarian cancer diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 44 years. Median follow-up was 6.5 years in SEER and 4.6 years in NCDB.

Overall, 26.1% of the SEER cohort and 24.8% of the NCDB cohort had undergone fertility-sparing surgery. In both cohorts, odds of this surgery were higher among younger women, those with a more recent ovarian cancer diagnosis, and those who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy.

Among women with stage II-IV serous epithelial ovarian cancer in the SEER cohort, those who underwent fertility-sparing surgery had poorer overall survival (hazard ratio for death, 1.61; P = .0008). However, fertility-sparing surgery was not significantly associated with survival in other SEER subgroups defined by stage and grade or by stage and histology or in any NCDB subgroup defined by these parameters.

“In general, our findings regarding survival support the current National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommendation that fertility-sparing surgery can be considered as an alternative for traditional, comprehensive staging for those patients who desire fertility, for whom ovarian retention is technically feasible, and who have early-stage disease,” Dr. Crafton and coinvestigators wrote.

“Our observation of an increased risk of death associated with fertility-sparing surgery among women with advanced-stage, serous epithelial ovarian cancer in the SEER population supports the clinical recommendation that the decision to pursue fertility-sparing surgery should be individualized on the basis of patient/provider counseling and disease characteristics,” they concluded.

Dr. Crafton did not report any disclosures. The study was supported by the National Cancer Institute.

SOURCE: Crafton SM et al. Cancer. 2019 Nov 27. doi: 10.1002/cncr.32620.

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