Prophylactic salpingectomy and ovarian cancer: An evidence-based analysis

One of the ovarian carcinogenesis theories was the presence of premalignant cells in the epithelium of the fallopian tube. Therefore, the prophylactic salpingectomy during benign gynecological surgery is now expected as the attempt to reduce the ovarian cancer incidence. We studied the effect of prophylactic bilateral salpingectomy (PBS) in reducing the ovarian cancer incidence.

This evidence-based report resulted from critical appraisal of 5 articles. It is aimed to answer our clinical question, can bilateral prophylactic salpingectomy reduce the incidence of ovarian cancer among women underwent hysterectomy for benign condition or permanent contraception surgery? The search was conducted on the Cochrane Library®, PubMed®, and Embase® using keywords of "prophylactic salpingectomy," and "ovarian cancer incidence." Reference lists of relevant articles were searched for other possibly relevant articles.

Five studies were included in our appraisal. The incidence of ovarian cancer among women underwent prophylactic salpingectomy is lower compared to women who were not underwent any intervention (2.2% to 13% and 4.75% to 24.4%). The salpingectomy may reduce 29.2% to 64% of ovarian cancer incidence. No significant effect of PBS to ovarian function, quality of life, sexuality, surgery duration, and its cost-effective profile were also found throughout our literature study.

PBS is suggested to be performed for women during benign gynecological surgery as a primary preventive strategy of ovarian cancer. PBS is a cost-effective procedure, risk-reducing for ovarian cancer and has no significant effect to the ovarian function.