NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – As many as one quarter of young
women with uterine cancer also have ovarian cancer, new
research suggests.
Several groups advocate ovary-sparing treatment to
safeguard fertility in young women with uterine cancer, the
authors explain, but reports have suggested that these women
have ovarian cancer rates ranging from 5 to 29 percent,
according to a report in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Dr. Ilana Cass from UCLA and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,
Los Angeles, and colleagues investigated the frequency of
coexisting ovarian cancer in 102 women, age 45 years or
younger, who underwent hysterectomy for uterine cancer.
Twenty-six of the women, or 25 percent, had coexisting
ovarian cancer, the authors report. Aside from three cases in
which the ovarian cancer had spread from uterine cancer, all of
the ovarian cancers were new, separate cancers.
Most of the cases occurred in women with early uterine
cancer. Moreover, in a few cases, standard X-ray methods failed
to detect the ovarian cancer.
“Based on our data, we would recommend a cautious approach
to (ovary-sparing treatment) in young patients with uterine
cancer,” the authors conclude. “The high incidence of
coexisting (cancer) in the ovaries and the young age of
diagnosis suggest an increased susceptibility of the
reproductive organs to” becoming cancerous.
“If the ovaries are preserved at the time of hysterectomy,”
the researchers advise, “patients may need continued
postoperative surveillance” of the fallopian tubes and ovaries.
At the minimum, careful assessment of the fallopian tubes and
ovaries is warranted in all young patients with uterine cancer.
SOURCE: Obstetrics and Gynecology, October 2005.
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