SGO Clinical Practice Statement on Hormone Therapy for Certain Gynecologic Cancers
Posted: Tuesday, July 28, 2020
According to a clinical practice statement from the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) published in Gynecologic Oncology, hormone therapy may be beneficial for women with high-grade serous ovarian cancer, early-stage endometrial cancer, and cervical cancer where cancer treatment may have induced early menopause. Women undergoing treatment or prevention of gynecologic cancer often experience early induced menopause, which has been found to result in more severe symptoms and a greater negative effect on quality of life when compared with natural menopause. Hormone therapy is often withheld due to the theoretical increased risk of disease recurrence or death.
“Despite being the most effective treatment modalities for menopause symptoms, systemic and local hormone therapy are consistently underutilized in women with a personal history or at high risk for developing a gynecologic cancer,” concluded Bhavana Pothuri, MD, of the New York University School of Medicine, and colleagues.
In previous studies, hormone therapy was not found to be detrimental to survival outcomes in patients with certain cancers. At a follow-up of 19 years, women with high-grade serous ovarian cancer who underwent estrogen therapy experienced an improved overall and recurrence-free survival versus nonhormone therapy. Women with early-stage endometrial cancer who were treated with systemic estrogen therapy were found at a follow-up of 35.7 months to have a comparable rate of disease recurrence to patients receiving placebo (2.3% vs. 1.9%). Similarly, at a follow-up of at least 5 years, women with cervical cancer who were treated with hormone therapy experienced no difference in recurrence or survival rates versus patients who received placebo. Preventative hormone therapy has also been found to benefit patients with Lynch syndrome and those positive for BRCA mutation but without a personal history of breast cancer.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit gynecologiconcology-online.net.
