Purpose: We sought to determine if stress urinary incontinence surgery (mesh or nonmesh) is associated with the development of pelvic malignancies later in life.
Materials and methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study between January 1, 2002 and October 31, 2015 of all women in Ontario, Canada without a history of pelvic malignancy who underwent an index stress incontinence surgery. The primary outcome was a composite of any pelvic malignancy (including urological and gynecological cancers) following stress incontinence surgery. Secondarily, we considered each cancer individually. A survival analysis using a Cox proportional-hazards model with a 3-level categorical exposure (mesh surgery, nonmesh surgery, and control) was performed. Patients were followed until death, emigration or the study end (October 31, 2017).
Results: Of the women 74,968 underwent stress urinary incontinence surgery during the study period. There were 5,505,576 women in the control group. Over a median followup of 8.5 years (IQR, 5.5-11.9), 587 pelvic malignancies occurred in the surgery group. Women who underwent stress incontinence surgery had a reduced risk of pelvic malignancy independent of surgery type, compared to controls (Wald type 3 p <0.001; mesh HR, 0.68 [95% CI, 0.62-0.76]; p <0.0001; nonmesh HR, 0.37 [95% CI, 0.29-0.46]; p <0.0001). The individual pelvic cancers similarly demonstrated a reduced risk of malignancy following stress incontinence surgery.
Conclusions: At a median followup of 8.5 years, women had no increased risk of pelvic malignancy following either mesh or nonmesh stress urinary incontinence surgery in a large population-based cohort.
Keywords: neoplasms; suburethral slings; urinary incontinence; women.