Progress in menopausal hormone therapy for postoperative patients with gynecological malignant cancer

Abstract

Menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) is an effective therapy for alleviating menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal patients. Clinically, the safety and effectiveness of MHT in postoperative patients with gynecological malignant tumors are the most important. We reviewed the clinical studies on MHT after surgical treatment of gynecological malignant tumors in recent five years. The comprehensive results showed that MHT after surgical treatment of early endometrial cancer (EC) did not increase the risk of recurrence and improved the quality of life. Postoperative MHT has no adverse effect on disease-free survival and overall survival in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (OC), however it is not recommended for other non-epithelial ovarian tumors such as ovarian sex cord stromal tumor. MHT is relatively safe after surgical treatment of cervical squamous cell carcinoma, however there are few studies on the postoperative use of MHT in cervical adenocarcinoma, vulvar cancer and vaginal cancer patients, and no definite conclusions are available at present. This review aimed to update the understanding of postoperative hormone therapy for gynecological malignant tumors and provide reference for improving the patients’ life quality and selecting MHT regimen rationally.

Keywords

• |menopausal hormone therapy|gynecologic cancer|endometrial cancer|ovarian cancer|iatrogenic menopause|recurrence risk