Endometrial polyps in obese asymptomatic pre and postmenopausal patients with breast cancer: Is screening necessary?

• Obese asymptomatic postmenopausal women with breast cancer have a very high prevalence of subclinical endometrial polyps.
• In premenopausal women with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, obesity is not a risk factor for endometrial polyps.
• Pre-tamoxifen endometrial assessment could be a rational option in postmenopausal ER(+) breast cancer, obese and elderly patients.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the prevalence of endometrial polyps in obese asymptomatic pre and postmenopausal patients with breast cancer and to know if a baseline pretamoxifen endometrial assessment should be taken into consideration in these women at high risk.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out with 201 women with breast cancer. A diagnostic hysteroscopy was performed in all women. All formations suspected as polyps were removed. The prevalence of endometrial polyps was analyzed in all patients (n = 182) and in premenopausal (n = 49) and postmenopausal (n = 118) women with estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer (BC) according to their body mass index (BMI) and other risk factors.ResultsHysteroscopic evaluation was possible in 182 cases (90.5%). Of the total of women, 160 (87.9%) were ER(+)BC patients, 133 (73.1%) postmenopausal women and 41.5% were obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2). Endometrial polyps were found in 52 cases (28.5%) (3 cases of simple hyperplasia harbored within a polyp). In premenopausal patients with ER(+)BC, there were no statistical differences in endometrial polyps according to their BMI (22.3% in non-obese women vs 31.7% in obese) while in all patients (26.4% in non-obese vs 44.0% in obese) and in postmenopausal women with ER(+)BC (25.9% in non-obese vs 48.6% in obese) there were statistical differences. In all women the relative risk (RR) of endometrial polyps in obese patients was 2.24 (1.01–4.83), in obese postmenopausal women with ER(+)BC was 2.75 (1.01–7.40) and in obese premenopausal patients with ER(+)BC was 1.42 (0.80–3.29).ConclusionsAsymptomatic women with breast cancer have a high prevalence of baseline subclinical endometrial polyps and it is very high in obese postmenopausal patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. Therefore, there may be a future role for baseline pretamoxifen screening of some sort for the obese asymptomatic postmenopausal patient, especially if they are elderly and ER positive.