Clinical Usefulness of Endometrial Cytology in Determining the Therapeutic Effect of Fertility Preserving Therapy

Introduction: The significance of endometrial cytology in determining the therapeutic efficacy of medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) therapy is unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical usefulness of endometrial cytology during MPA therapy. Methods: Overall, 77 patients who underwent dilatation and curettage (D&C) to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of MPA therapy at our hospital between January 2018 and December 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The results of D&C, cytological evaluation, and other clinicopathological factors were analyzed based on the patients' medical records. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of cytology were 61% and 92%, respectively, with D&C being the gold standard for diagnosis in 142 D&C/cytological examinations. Among patients with no residual disease on D&C, 5 (4%) had suspicious or positive cytology. Although MPA therapy was terminated in 3 of these patients, only 1 patient had early recurrence, and the frequency of recurrence was similar to that of patients who showed negative results in both D&C and cytology. Discussion/Conclusion: The sensitivity of endometrial cytology in determining the therapeutic effect of MPA therapy is low, and we confirmed that the omission of D&C is unacceptable. Our findings also suggested that the addition of cytological evaluation to D&C during MPA therapy had a low clinical significance.