THURSDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- Among postmenopausal women without abnormal bleeding who are incidentally diagnosed with polyps, abnormal histology is only significantly associated with polyps greater than 18 mm in diameter, according to research published in the March issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Enrico Ferrazzi, M.D., of the University of Milan, Italy, and colleagues conducted a study of 1,152 asymptomatic women and 770 postmenopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding. The patients all underwent hysteroscopic polypectomy.
The prevalence of endometrial carcinoma was 10 times higher among women with abnormal uterine bleeding than among asymptomatic women, only one of whom was diagnosed with stage 1 grade 1 endometrial cancer, the researchers report. There was a 1.2 percent prevalence of atypical polyps among asymptomatic women versus 2.2 percent for those with symptoms, and the only variable that was associated with cancer, polypoid cancer and atypical hyperplasia was polyp diameter, the investigators found.
"Our data do not support the idea that removal of the typical atrophic
fibroglandular polyp on atrophic endometrium is a valid measure for secondary prevention of endometrial cancer," the authors write. "Follow-up and/or treatment of endometrial polyps incidentally diagnosed in asymptomatic postmenopausal patients could be safely restricted to few selected cases based on irregular shape of the lesion and polyp diameter."
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