Novelties of ultrasound imaging for endometrial cancer preoperative workup.

Abstract

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most frequent gynecological cancer. Transvaginal ultrasound (TVU) plays a leading role in the preoperative workup and often is the first diagnostic instrumental examination. Despite expert hands' ultrasound is recommended to assess myometrial invasion in early stage EC, this method is a strictly operator-dependent examination, and varying degrees of sensitivity and specificity have been reported. The present review aims to provide an update of ultrasound imaging in the preoperative work-up for EC patients. A double-blind search was performed from May to September 2020. The following keywords: "ultrasound," "transvaginal ultrasound" and "endometrial cancer" were searched in Pubmed search engines, Scopus, and Web of Science. The Prisma statement was followed for the selection of the articles included. The initial search provided 958 studies, of which 11 were included in the analysis. non-English articles, not relevant to the purposes of this study, case reports and articles with fewer than 40 cases were excluded. TVU sensitivity and specificity in myometrial infiltration and cervical invasion is comparable to MRI but has lower costs, greater patient tolerability, and does not require contrast agents. An expert operator should perform the ultrasound examination in patients with suspected EC The presence of myometrial lesions, such as leiomyomas, could lower the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound, so special attention should be paid to patients with concomitant uterine lesions.