WEDNESDAY, Dec. 26 (HealthDay News) -- For women who undergo fertility-sparing treatment for uterine cancer, subsequent use of fertility drugs is not associated with a higher incidence of cancer recurrence, according to research published in the January issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Jeong-Yeol Park, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Ulsan College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues examined pregnancy outcomes based on a review of the medical records of 141 women with stage IA, grade 1 endometrioid adenocarcinoma of the uterus who had complete remission after fertility-sparing management using progestin.

Of the cohort, 38.3 percent had a history of infertility. After treatment, the median interval to attempted pregnancy was five months, and at the time of the pregnancy trial, the median age was 32.4 years. The researchers found that 60 women (49.6 percent) tried to conceive, of which 62.9 percent received fertility drugs. Of the women who tried to conceive, 73 percent were successful and 66 percent gave birth (46 women to 58 live neonates). The spontaneous abortion rate was 24 percent, ectopic pregnancy rate 2.8 percent, and preterm delivery rate 11.5 percent. Women who did versus did not receive fertility drugs had similar five-year disease-free survival (73 versus 62 percent; P = 0.335), and for women who achieved at least one pregnancy, this rate was even higher compared to those who did not achieve pregnancy (76 versus 62 percent; P = 0.028).

"The use of fertility drugs was not associated with a higher incidence of cancer recurrence after successful fertility-sparing management in this study population," the authors write.

Abstract
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