Letter to the Editor regarding the manuscript entitled: "Prevalence of occult gynecologic malignancy at the time of risk reducing and nonprophylactic surgery in patients with Lynch syndrome" by Lachiewicz et al. (Gynecol Oncol. 2014; 132: 434-437).

Dear Dr. Karlan,

I was interested to read the article by Lachiewicz and colleagues that appeared in a recent issue of Gynecologic Oncology (Lachiewicz et al., 2014). The authors conducted a retrospective chart review of patients with Lynch syndrome who had undergone surgery (hysterectomy and/or bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy); their purpose was to determine the prevalence of occult malignancy found during operative management of these patients. The study revealed that occult malignancy was found in 17% of Lynch syndrome patients who had undergone surgery for prophylactic indications, and in 26% of Lynch syndrome patients who had undergone surgery for any indication.

Lachiewicz and colleagues state that theirs was the first study to describe the prevalence of occult malignancy at the time of risk reducing or nonprophylactic surgery in Lynch syndrome. However, our group published similar findings (Karamurzin et al., 2013) before Lachiewicz's article was submitted for publication in Gynecologic Oncology. Like Lachiewicz's work, ours was focused on determining the prevalence of carcinoma and atypical hyperplasia at the time of risk reducing surgery for Lynch syndrome. Our results were similar to those described by Lachiewicz et al.: in Lynch syndrome patients who underwent hysterectomy/bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, incidental endometrial carcinoma and/or endometrial hyperplasia was found in 24% of cases, and ovarian carcinoma in 4%. Other groups have published on this topic as well, e.g., Schmeler et al. in 2006 (Schmeler et al., 2006), as noted by Lachiewicz.

Conflict of interest statement

The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.