Pregnancy rates after conservative treatment for borderline ovarian tumours: a systematic review

Borderline ovarian tumours account for 10-15% of all ovarian cancers, and there have been numerous studies indicating their excellent long-term prognosis. As this disease commonly affects younger women, the issue of fertility-preserving surgery is increasingly important. A systematic review of the literature, searching the relevant electronic databases was performed analysing conservative surgery, borderline ovarian tumours and pregnancy rates/fertility outcome. Overall, 19 studies met the inclusion criteria. From these studies, 2479 patients had borderline ovarian tumours of which 923 (37%) patients were treated by conservative surgery. Nine studies recorded data regarding pregnancy outcome. A pregnancy rate of 48% was calculated on these data, where recorded, analysing the number of women wanting to conceive and the actual number of pregnancies achieved. The recurrence rate after conservative treatment was 16% with only five recorded disease-related deaths. Knowledge of the pregnancy rates is important to permit appropriate counselling of women diagnosed with this malignancy.