No increase in Ca risk after ablation: low-risk women studied.(News)

LAS VEGAS -- Low-risk women who underwent endometrial ablation between 1978 and 1995 did not increase or decrease their risk for endometrial cancer, compared with age-matched controls, in a retrospective study.

Anecdotal reports of endometrial cancers developing after ablation led Dr. Robert S. Neuwirth and his associates to undertake a study to assess this potential long-term risk. There have been theoretical concerns that burning from an aggressive ablation could create carbon particles that might increase the risk for endometrial cancer, or that new endometrial cancer might be missed if ablation causes scarring or blocks the cervix, masking the lesion. It's also possible that destroying endometrial tissue via ablation might decrease the risk for endometrial cancer, Dr. Neuwirth, professor of ob.gyn. at Columbia University, New York, said in an interview.

"As more women are undergoing endometrial ablation with global ablation techniques, this question is becoming more important," he said at the annual meeting of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists.

The investigators studied low-risk patients--those with a benign endometrium--who underwent total ablation of the uterine cavity using hysteroscopic laser or electrosurgical resectoscope before the era of global ablation technologies.

Data on 466 women yielded two cases of endometrial cancer in 5,063 woman-years of follow-up. The number of endometrial cancers that would be expected during that ...