Fertility preservation in patients with borderline ovarian tumors

• Mekan R. Orazov
• Marina V. Kiseleva
• Vladlena M. Pernai
• Andrey D. Kaprin
• Sergei A. Ivanov

Abstract

The term “borderline ovarian tumor” (BOT) unites a group of epithelial ovarian tumors, which account for 15–20% of all epithelial ovarian malignancies. In recent decades, there has been a tendency towards an increase and rejuvenation in the incidence of BOT. The average age at the time of diagnosis of the tumor is 38 years, while every third patient of reproductive age does not have children at the time of diagnosis.

The aim of the study was to analyze data on criteria for maintaining fertility in patients with different histotypes of BOT.

Material and methods. A search was performed for information on fertility preservation strategies in patients with different histotypes of BOT, published in 2010–2024 in the electronic libraries CochraneLibrary, PubMed, eLibrary, Science Direct. The search was carried out by keywords: borderline ovarian tumors, fertility, fertility-sparing surgery, ovarian reserve, anti-mullerian hormone.

Results. Currently, there is no clear data on the effect of conservative operations on the long-term prognosis of fertility and the frequency of relapses; there is no consensus on the optimal amount of surgery for different histotypes of BOT; there is no information on the effect of different histotypes of BOT and preoperative factors on OR.

Conclusion. There is an obvious need to develop optimal and safe strategies for coping with infertility in patients with BOT, to study the effectiveness and safety of various oocyte vitrification technologies, as well as to evaluate less aggressive methods of superovulation induction.

Keywords: borderline ovarian tumor; recurrence; fertility; fertility-sparing surgery

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