Purpose: To review and analyze risk factors and the pathology of malignant transformation of adenomyosis.
Methods: In this paper, the relevant research on current risks factors and the pathology of malignant transformation of adenomyosis was reviewed and analyzed by metaanalysis. All studies included were retrieved from the PUBMED.
Results: Analysis of existing studies revealed that most malignant transformation of adenomyosis occurs in elderly or postmenopausal patients. Adenomyosis with uterine leiomyoma or benign endometrial hyperplasia and other benign diseases appears to be more prone to malignancy, but there is currently no strong evidence to confirm this finding.
Conclusions: At present, the malignant transformation of adenomyosis is thought to be due to its endometrial epithelium transition to monolayer tumor cells before malignant transformation, which eventually develops to varying degrees of cancer. However, the specific molecular mechanism of adenomyosis is not yet clear. Because of its low incidence of malignant transformation, lack of large-sample, multi-center clinical trials, and large heterogeneity of the existing research, the evidence based on the high-risk factors of malignant transformation of adenomyosis is weak.
Keywords: Adenomyosis; Malignant transformation; Meta-analysis.