Objectives Although a large part of patients with cervical adenocarcinoma are young, oophorectomy is commonly performed in those who receive hysterectomy for fear of ovarian metastasis. The purpose of this study was to examine the safety of ovarian preservation in young women with cervical adenocarcinoma.

Methods Patients 45 years or younger with stage I cervical adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous carcinoma were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program (1988–2007). The characteristics of the patients with ovarian preservation were compared with those of the women with oophorectomy. Univariate Kaplan-Meier analysis and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model were used to explore the effects of ovarian preservation on survival.

Results The study sample consisted of 1639 women, including 1062 women (64.8%) who underwent oophorectomy and 577 women (35.2%) who had ovarian preservation at the time of hysterectomy. Younger age (P < 0.001), recent diagnosis (P < 0.001), low-grade (P < 0.001) and smaller tumor (P < 0.001), white population (P = 0.015), as well as less chance to undergo lymphadenectomy (P < 0.001) and adjuvant radiotherapy (P = 0.041) were associated with ovarian preservation. Ovarian preservation had no effect on either cancer-specific (hazard ratio [HR], 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.50–1.61) or overall (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.49–1.33) survival in the Cox proportional hazards model. When the patients without radiotherapy were separately analyzed, the effect on either cancer-specific (HR, 1.24; 95% CI, 0.44–3.54) or overall (HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.35–1.73) survival were not statistically significant.

Conclusions Ovarian preservation may have oncological safety for young women with stage I cervical adenocarcinoma.