Outcomes of ovarian preservation in a cohort of premenopausal women with early-stage endometrial cancer: A Korean Gynecologic Oncology Group study

Objective

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of ovarian preservation on the recurrence and survival rates of premenopausal women with early-stage endometrial cancer.

Methods

Using medical records of premenopausal women who received primary surgical treatment for stage I–II endometrial cancer, the demographics and survival rates were compared retrospectively for patients who had ovarian preservation and those who underwent bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. Cox proportional hazards models with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) based on propensity score were performed to adjust for selection bias between the two groups.

Results

A total of 495 women were identified, including 176 patients who had ovarian preservation. The ovarian preservation group was younger (P < 0.001) and had an earlier year of diagnosis (P = 0.014), a lower prevalence of lymphadenectomy (P < 0.001), and a marginally significant association with lower tumor grade (P = 0.052). The Kaplan–Meier curve and the log rank test showed no difference in either recurrence-free survival (P = 0.742) or overall survival (P = 0.462) between the two groups. In a multivariate Cox model adjusted by IPTW and covariates, ovarian preservation had no effect on either recurrence (hazard ratio HR], 0.73; 95% CI, 0.29–1.81) or overall survival (HR, 1.33; 95% CI, 0.43–4.09).

Conclusions

Ovarian preservation does not appear to be associated with an adverse impact on the outcomes of premenopausal women with early-stage endometrial cancer. The present study has useful implications for physicians counseling young women who want to preserve their ovaries.