Efficacy of sonohysterography and hysteroscopy for evaluation of endometrial lesions in tamoxifen treated patients: a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: This review aims to evaluate the incidence of endometrial lesions in tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients identified by hysteroscopy (HS) and sonohysterography (SIS) and the diagnostic accuracy of the two methods to detect them. Methods: A systematic review of the literature concerning the role of HS and SIS for evaluation of the endometrium in tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients was performed. We searched MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, IBECS, BIOSIS, Web of Science, SCOPUS, congress abstracts, and Grey literature (Google Scholar; British Library). The search terms used were “hysteroscopy”, “hysterosonography”, “sonohysterography” combined with “tamoxifen”; 89 citations were identified and selected in the initial screening. Results: 28 studies were included in the systematic review. There were 61 citations excluded because they were review articles (n = 9) or case report (n = 5) and non-English articles (n = 8), and had too little information in the full text (n = 39). Similar accuracy between SIS and HS in detection of endometrial tamoxifen-related lesions was found. Conclusions: SIS may represent a minimally invasive, simple, safe, well-tolerated and cost-effective alternative to HS, associated with few contraindications and no potential complications.