Fertility preservation in patients with early epithelial ovarian cancer

To assess the role of fertility preservation in the treatment of patients with early epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).

We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 21 patients with early EOC from January 1995 to December 2006. All eligible patients with a strong desire to preserve fertility were younger than 35 years and underwent fertility-sparing surgery with or without adjuvant chemotherapy.

Twenty-one eligible patients with a median age of 26.7 years (range, 20 to 33 years) were identified, and the mean follow-up period was 43 months (range, 5 to 86 months). Only one patient with stage IC recurred 34 months after the first operation. A total of five patients were able to become pregnant at least once after the first fertility preserving treatment, with or without adjuvant chemotherapy. All five patients succeeded in full-term vaginal delivery with healthy infants. No patients died of their disease.

Fertility preserving treatment in patients with early EOC can be considered as a proper treatment strategy in patients with early EOC, who have the strong desire for fertility preservation.