Endometrial cancer is the most common genital cancer in high-resource countries.Treatment is essentially surgical, but the role of lymphadenectomy in the treatment of low-stage and low-grade tumors has not been defined. Although no tumor factors have been validated for use as preoperative prognostic markers of endometrial cancer at yet, human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) has received much interest as a potential diagnostic and prognostic tumor marker. Since 2008, several studies have explored its utility in the management of endometrial cancer: HE4 may be a useful preoperative prognostic marker because it is associated with lymphatic metastasis and other unfavorable factors in endometrial cancer. In addition, some studies have explored a HE4 cutoff value to classify patients according to lymph node involvement. HE4 might be beneficial as a serum marker that helps clinicians in the decision-making algorithm for treatment of endometrial cancer, enabling them to perform individualized operations and decrease the adverse effects of unnecessary surgery.
K E Y W O R D SEndometrial cancer; HE4; Human epididymis protein 4; Lymphadenectomy; Lymphatic metastasis; Preoperative procedure; Prognosis; Tumor marker
Delayed delivery of the second twin before 28 weeks of gestation can be an alternative for the obstetrician since it could prolong the pregnancy until a gestational age which confers a better prognosis and a better perinatal outcome for the second twin.
The alteration of the uterocervical angle (UCA) has been proposed to play an important role in spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB). The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the evidence on the UCA predictive role in sPTB. In this study, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google scholar were systematically searched from inception up to June 2020. Inter-study heterogeneity was also assessed using Cochrane’s <i>Q</i> test and the <i>I</i><sup>2</sup> statistic. Afterward, the random-effects model was used to pool the weighted mean differences (WMDs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Eleven articles that reported second-trimester UCA of 5,061 pregnancies were included in this study. Our meta-analysis results indicate that a wider UCA significantly increases the risk of sPTB in following cases: all pregnancies (WMD = 15.25, 95% CI: 11.78–18.72, <i>p</i> < 0.001; <i>I</i><sup>2</sup> = 75.9%, <i>p</i> < 0.001), singleton (WMD = 14.43, 95% CI: 8.79–20.06, <i>p</i> < 0.001; <i>I</i><sup>2</sup> = 82.4%, <i>p</i> < 0.001), and twin pregnancies (WMD = 15.14, 95% CI: 13.42–16.87, <i>p</i> < 0.001; <i>I</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.0%, <i>p</i> = 0.464). A wider ultrasound-measured UCA in the second trimester seems to be associated with the increased risk of sPTB in both singleton and twin pregnancies, which reinforces the clinical evidence that UCA has the potential to be used as a predictive marker of sPTB.
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