Endometrial cancer and hyperplasia rate in women before menopause with abnormal uterine bleeding undergoing endometrial sampling.

Introduction: Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is the most common symptom of endometrial cancer (EC) and endometrial hyperplasia with (AH) or without (EH) atypia. Risk of malignancy and hyperplasia is significantly lower in premenopausal than in postmenopausal women. Only 10% of EC occurs before menopause. Obesity and age are well-recognized risk factors of endometrial cancer. Endometrial sampling is recommended in women at high risk of endometrial malignancy. The primary objective was to determine the incidence of EC, AH and EH in premenopausal women undergoing dilation and curettage (D&C) because of AUB. Additional objective of the study was to estimate the risk of EC and AH in overweight and obese women with two types of AUB: heavy menstrual bleeding (AUB-HMB) and intermenstrual bleeding (AUB-IMB), according to PALM-COEIN classification.

Material and methods: Retrospective study in the population of women undergoing D&C in tertiary hospital because of AUB between Jan-2016 and Dec-2016. The incidence of EC, AH, EH was established. The influence of the variables: age, BMI, AUBHMB/ AUB-IMB on the occurrence of abnormal histology (EC, AH, EH) was evaluated. Finally, the model built by using backward stepwise regression and mechanism of v-fold cross-validation, showed no statistically significant relationship.

Results: EC was detected in 2/213 cases (0.9%; 95% CI 0.0003 to 0.036), AH in 3/213 cases (1.4%), giving a total of 5/213 (2.3%) women with AH or EC. EH was detected in 16/213 (7.5%) women. High BMI raises the chance of AH diagnosis: OR 1.16 (95% CI 1.05- 1.28). The presence of HMB compared to IMB reduces the chance of EH: OR 0.24 (95% CI 0.07-0.9). IMB increases the chance for the diagnosis of EH 4.11 times compared to HMB (OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.1-14.9; p = 0.016).

Conclusions: EC in premenopausal women with AUB undergoing D&C is rare. There is a need to search for more effective methods of selection of patients than commonly used. Age and BMI do not seem to be factors that should be used to select patients.