Hysteroscopic Resection in Fertility-Sparing Surgery for Atypical Hyperplasia and Endometrial Cancer: Safety and Efficacy.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the rate of intrauterine adhesions after hysteroscopic resection of hyperplastic and/or cancer areas and the efficacy of combined treatment. DESIGN: Observational retrospective study. SETTING: Patients affected by endometrial atypical hyperplasia of the endometrium or early stage endometrial carcinoma. PATIENTS: Twenty-three patients, up to 45 years of age. INTERVENTION: Conservative treatment based on hysteroscopic resection of hyperplastic and/or cancer areas and subsequent therapy with megestrol acetate 160 mg/day. METHODS AND MAIN RESULTS: Approximately 5% of endometrial cancers (ECs) are diagnosed in women younger than 40 years old, usually with a good prognosis. From 2010 to 2014, 23 patients, up to age 45 years, who were affected by endometrial cancer (EC) grade 1 or atypical complex hyperplasia (ACH) and who wished to preserve fertility, underwent conservative treatment based on hysteroscopic resection of the hyperplastic and/or cancer areas and subsequent therapy with megestrol acetate 160 mg/day. Data with regard to age, body mass index, symptoms, history of infertility, and previous assisted reproductive technologies attempts, obstetrics history, previous diagnosis of intrauterine sinechiae, hysteroscopic findings, duration of therapy, follow-up reports, and reproductive outcomes were collected and analyzed. Of the 23 patients enrolled in the study, 3 patients (13%) presented with an endometrioid EC grade 1, and 20 patients (87%) had ACH. Twelve patients (52.2%) had complete remission after 3 months of progestin therapy, 9 patients (39.1%) had a complete remission after 6 months, and 2 (8.7%) patients had remission after 9 months. Six patients underwent a second hysteroscopic resection. The 3 patients with an initial diagnosis of EC had complete remission after a mean of 4 months of high-dose progestin therapy; in patients with ACH, remission occurred after a mean of 3 months. In all patients, intrauterine adhesions were not detected at any follow-up diagnostic hysteroscopy. After a median follow-up time of 25 months (range 8-37), we registered 1 (4.3%) relapse of disease. A total of 7 pregnancies in 6 patients were counted, after an average time of 7.4 months (range 3-13 months) after the end of progestin therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Hysteroscopic resection of hyperplastic and/or cancer areas before high dosage progestin therapy seems to be a safe and effective approach in the management of ACH and in patients with early EC who wish to preserve fertility.

Hybrid PET/MRI in Staging Endometrial Cancer: Diagnostic and Predictive Value in a Prospective Cohort.

AIM: The assessment of deep myometrial invasion (MI) and lymph node involvement is of utmost importance in the preoperative staging of endometrial cancer (EC). Imaging parameters derived respectively from MRI and PET have shown good predictive value. The main aim of the present study is to assess the diagnostic performance of hybrid 18F-FDG PET/MRI in EC staging, with particular focus on MI and lymphnodal involvement detection. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Prospective monocentric study including 35 patients with biopsy-proven EC undergoing preoperative 18F-FDG PET/MRI (December 2018-March 2021) for staging purpose. Histological examination was the reference standard. PET (SUVmax, SUVmean with a threshold of 40% of SUVmax-SUVmean40, metabolic tumor volume, total lesion glycolysis) and MRI (volume index [VI], total tumor volume, tumor volume ratio [TVR], mean apparent diffusion coefficient, minimum apparent diffusion coefficient) parameters were calculated on the primary tumor, and their role in predicting EC risk group, the presence of lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI), and MI was assessed. Receiver operating characteristics analysis was used to assess the predictive value of PET and MRI parameters on EC characteristics. RESULTS: Patients' median age was 66.57 years (SD, 10.21 years). 18F-FDG PET/MRI identified the primary tumor in all patients. Twenty-two of 35 patients had high-risk EC and 13/35 low-risk disease; 13/35 presented LVSI, 22/35 had deep MI at histological examination, and 13/35 had p53 hyperexpression.PET/MRI was able to detect lymphnodal involvement with high accuracy and high specificity (sensitivity of 0.8571, specificity of 0.9286, accuracy of 0.9143), also showing a high negative predictive value (NPV) for lymphnodal involvement (NPV of 0.9630, positive predictive value [PPV] of 0.7500).The assessment of deep MI using PET/MRI correctly staged 27 patients (77.1%; sensitivity of 0.7273, specificity of 0.8462, accuracy of 0.7714), with also a good PPV (PPV of 0.8889, NPV of 0.647).MRI-derived total tumor volume, VI, and TVR were significant in predicting EC groups (high-risk vs low-risk patients) (P = 0.0059, 0.0235, 0.0181, respectively). MRI-derived volume, VI, TVR, and PET-derived metabolic tumor volume and total lesion glycolysis were able to predict LVSI (P = 0.0023, 0.0068, 0.0068, 0.0027, 0.01394, respectively). Imaging was not able to predict grading, presence of deep MI, nor hyperexpression of p53. CONCLUSIONS: 18F-FDG PET/MRI has good accuracy in preoperative staging of EC; PET and MRI parameters have synergic role in preoperatively predicting LVSI, with MRI parameters being also predictive for EC risk group.

Synergic role of preoperative 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET and MRI parameters in predicting histopathological features of endometrial cancer.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study is to explore the correlation between PET and MRI parameters of primary tumour and clinicopathological features and to determine their synergic predictive role in patients with endometrial cancer candidate to surgery. METHODS: Retrospective study including 27 patients with endometrial cancer and preoperative 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG)-PET and MRI scan. The following parameters, calculated on the primary tumour, were used for analysis: maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), SUVmean, metabolic tumour volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) for PET scans; mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADCmean) and volume index for MRI scans. FIGO stage, grade, histotype, lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) and myometrial invasion were the considered clinicopathological features. RESULTS: MRI volume index was a good predictor for deep myometrial invasion [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.85; P = 0.003] and for LVSI (AUC = 0.74; P = 0.039). A cutoff value of 9.555 for MRI volume index was predictive for deep myometrial invasion (sensitivity = 84.6%; specificity = 76.9%); a cutoff of 12.165 was predictive for LVSI (sensitivity = 69.2%; specificity = 83.3%). A TLG cutoff value of 26.03 was predictive for deep myometrial invasion (sensitivity = 84.6%; specificity = 76.9%). A high-direct correlation was found with MRI volume index (rho = 0.722; P < 0.001); low-direct correlation with SUVmax (rho = 0.484; P = 0.012), SUVmean (rho = 0.47; P = 0.015) and TLG (rho = 0.482; P = 0.013) were identified. The SUVmax/ADCmean ratio showed a low-direct correlation with percentage of myometrial invasion (rho = 0.467; P = 0.016). CONCLUSION: Volume index, TLG and SUVmax/ADCmean ratio are associated with deep myometrial invasion. As myometrial invasion is the index used to predict lymph node involvement in endometrial cancer, the synergic use of these imaging parameters may be suggested to predict lymphnodal metastases.