The fertility and pregnancy outcomes of the patients who underwent preservative operation followed by adjuvant chemotherapy for malignant ovarian tumors

Abstract

The fertility and pregnancy outcomes of the patients were studied, who previously underwent preservative operation for malignant tumors, including those of borderline malignancy, in our ward from 1981 to 1995. For each of the 9 patients, unilateral ovary was preserved, the range of their ages before operation was 10 to 28 years old, and histologically, 7 patients had tumors derived from germ cells, and 2 had those from epithelial cells. As for clinical stages according to the FIGO's criteria, 5, 1, 2 and 1 patients were in stage I, II, III and IV, respectively. The regimens of the combination chemotherapy for patients with germ cell tumors were PVB (cisplatin, vinblastine and bleomycin), PEP (cisplatin, etopside and pepleomycin), PVP (cisplatin, vinblastine and pepleomycin), AVAC (doxorubicin, vincristine, actinomycin-d and cyclophosphamide). Those for the patient with epithelial tumors were CAP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and cisplatin), CP (cyclophosphamide and cisplatin). Eight patients have been doing well, although 1 of them experienced recurrence and died. Amenorrheic periods of 2 to 12 months were noticed in 3 patients, although in all of them, ovulatory cycles recovered. Eight pregnancies were reported: 5 term delivery with normal babies, and others were preterm termination due to abruptio placenta with a baby of appropriate for date, spontaneous abortion, and artificial termination. We suppose that the combination chemotherapy applied for the patients in the present study affected neither the fertility of the patients nor the outcomes of the pregnancies.