Hormone therapy for ovarian cancer survivors: systematic review and meta-analysis

abstract
 

OBJECTIVE:

Hormone therapy (HT) alleviates menopausal symptoms, but there is a lack of consensus regarding its use among premenopausal ovarian cancer survivors.

METHODS:

We systematically reviewed the literature and searched the Medline (1966-2014), Scopus (2004-2014), Popline (1974-2014), ClinicalTrials.gov (2008-2014), and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials CENTRAL (1999-2014) databases and the reference lists of electronically retrieved studies. Statistical meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.1 software.

RESULTS:

Six studies were included in our systematic review, which involved 1,521 women. Among them, 451 women (29.6%) received HT, whereas the remaining 1,070 women (70.4%) did not receive any treatment. We noticed a statistically significant reduction of ovarian cancer-related deaths among women who received HT (odds ratio, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.28-0.80); however, disease recurrence rates did not differ between the two groups (odds ratio, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.45-1.14). Studies included in the present systematic review did not report a significant difference in overall survival and disease-free survival rates among women receiving HT and controls.

CONCLUSIONS:

Based on the results of meta-analysis, HT does not influence the odds of ovarian cancer recurrence; however, this conclusion must be confirmed separately because of significant limitations in the methodological quality of the studies included.