Prophylactic Chemotherapy with Methotrexate Leucovorin in High-Risk Hydatidiform Mole

Aminimoghaddam, Soheila; Mahmoudzadeh, Fatemeh; Mohammadi, Marzieh

doi:10.31557/APJCP.2020.21.6.1755

Prophylactic Chemotherapy with Methotrexate Leucovorin in High-Risk Hydatidiform Mole

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

¹ Department of Gynecology and Oncology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

² Department of Emergency Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

10.31557/APJCP.2020.21.6.1755

Abstract

Aim: Gestational Trophoblastic Neoplasia (GTN) is used to describe a group of malignant gestational tumors originating from the placenta. The chance of having malignant GTN is high in a high-risk molar pregnancy. The main aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of using prophylactic chemotherapy in high-risk molar pregnancy to prevent malignant GTN. Method: In this case-control retrospective study, all patients with high-risk mole referred to Firoozgar and Akbarabadi Hospitals affiliated with Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) from 2003 to 2013 were divided into two groups of recipient and non-recipient of methotrexate prophylactic chemotherapy.Demographic information including age, parity, weight, serum βHCG before and after the intervention, level of liver function tests (LFT) and GTN were analyzed. Results: There were 102 patients with a mean age of 27.13 years (SD= 0.37), and 51 patients (50 %) received prophylactic Methotrexate (MTX), and others were the non-receivers. Finally, 23 patients (22.5%) were inflicted with GTN, and 79 (77.5 %) did not. The average time of βHCG spontaneous remission between the groups were 2.5 (SD=1.33) and 3.2 (SD=1.21), for the recipient and non-recipient, respectively, which showed a significant difference (p). Conclusion: This study concludes that prophylactic chemotherapy with MTX and leucovorin may be capable of reducing GTN, which supports the prescription of MTX in high-risk mole, especially in countries with limited resources. The toxicity of methotrexate can be reduced with the addition of leucovorin.

Keywords

Main Subjects