Hormonal therapies and gynaecological cancers

Abstract

Hormonal therapy has an established place in the management of women with gynaecological malignancies, including first-line therapy for recurrent receptor-positive endometrial cancer and low-grade stromal sarcoma. There is no place for adjuvant hormonal treatment of these cancers after primary surgery. Primary treatment with either oral or intra-uterine progestagens to preserve fertility in younger women with endometrial carcinoma is effective in about 70% of cases. Response rates to tamoxifen in advanced/recurrent ovarian cancers approximates 10%. To the authors' knowledge, no studies that reasonably compare different progestagens, different routes of therapy, different doses and different hormonal preparations have been published.