Hormonal therapy in uterine sarcomas

Abstract

Uterine sarcomas (USs) are a group of rare but aggressive uterine malignancies, accounting for only 1% of the malignant tumors of female reproductive organs. Due to the high rate of recurrence and metastasis, the prognosis of USs is poor. Given the high mortality rate and limited clinical benefit of surgery and adjuvant chemoradiotherapy, hormonal therapy has shown good prospects in recent years. Hormonal agents include progestins, aromatase inhibitors (AIs), and gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue (GnRH-a). According to the literature, hormonal therapy has been confirmed effective for recurrent, metastatic or unresectable low-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma (LGESS) and hormone receptor positive (ER+/PR+) uterine leiomyosarcoma (uLMS) with favorable tolerance and compliance. Besides, hormonal therapy can also be used in patients with early-staged disease who desire to preserve fertility. However, due to the rarity of USs, the rationale of hormonal therapy is generally extrapolated from data of hormone-sensitive breast cancer, and present studies of hormonal therapy in USs were almost limited to case reports and small-sized retrospective studies. Therefore, further systematic researches and standardized clinical trials are needed to establish the optimal hormonal therapy regimen of USs. Herein, we reviewed the existing studies related to the hormonal therapy in USs in order to provide reference for clinical management in specific settings.

Keywords: aromatase inhibitors; gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue; hormonal therapy; progestins; uterine sarcomas.