Hysterectomy and risk of ovarian cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

PurposeThe association between hysterectomy for benign gynecologic disease and ovarian cancer risk was controversial. Thus, we perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of hysterectomy and ovarian cancer risk.MethodsPubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase were searched from 2000 toJanuary 2018. A random-effect model was used to obtain the summary odds risks (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).ResultsA total of 18 case-control studies were included in the meta-analysis. We found that there was no statistical significance for ovarian cancer risk following hysterectomy (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.83-1.12). And in subgroup analysis, the protective effects were observed for invasive endometrioid/clear cell carcinomas after hysterectomy (OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.51, 0.94; I-2=0%), and no statistical significance for serous and mucinous.ConclusionsHysterectomy showed no relationship with ovarian cancer. But a reduced risk was found for endometrioid-invasive OC. These findings could provide evidence for patients with benign gynecological disease and clinicians to make appropriate decision about whether to conduct hysterectomy.