Prophylactic Salpingectomy for the Prevention of the Ovarian Cancer: Comparison Between Surgical Techniques. A Randomized Controlled Trial

Ovarian cancer accounts for 3% of all female cancers and represents the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the Western world (1). In 90% of cases, these are epithelial ovarian cancers (2).

Because of the biological aggressiveness of this tumor and nonspecific symptoms, that causes a diagnosis at an advanced stage in 75% of cases, ovarian cancer is the gynecological cancer with the highest mortality rate (3).

To date, an effective screening strategy to the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer doesn't exist, so the prophylactic adnexectomy is the only available tool to reduce the incidence and the mortality rate, even if the role of this surgical strategy is controversial, especially in premenopausal women (4). In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ACOG) guidelines recommend the ovarian preservation in premenopausal women with no family history or other risk factors for ovarian cancer (5).

Some clinical studies have shown that the prophylactic adnexectomy and the consequent surgical menopause increase significantly the long term risk of cardiovascular and psychosexual diseases. (6-8). In particular, a case-control study done in a population of 29,380 women subjected to hysterectomy with and without adnexectomy, showed an increased risk of total mortality ( HRs 1.12 95 % CI 1:03 to 1:21 ), lethal and non- lethal cardiovascular disease ( HRs 1.17 95 % CI 1:02 to 1:35 ) and stroke ( HRs 1.14 95 % CI 0.98-1.33 ) (9) . In this population of women subjected to salpingectomy, the surgery wasn't able to lead to an improvement in general survival (10).

Considering the new histopathological classification of the epithelial ovarian cancer, proposed by Kurman (11) and based on new acquisitions about the pathogenesis and the origin of these tumors, it is possible to conceive a new preventive strategy associated with a less morbidity.