AMH as a marker for resumption of ovarian function after chemotherapy: an IPD meta-analysis and systematic review.

[BACKGROUND] In premenopausal women with breast cancer, chemotherapy often leads to amenorrhea that could be temporary or permanent. Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is a potential biomarker predicting resumption of ovarian function, an outcome that aids in the decision making for endocrine therapy. This study aimed to determine the predictive value of pre-chemotherapy AMH levels for resumption of ovarian function.

[METHODS] We conducted a systematic review and individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis. Online databases were searched using terms including: AMH, prediction, menses, menses recovery, amenorrhea, chemotherapy-related amenorrhea, anovulation, menopause, infertility, ovarian reserve, premenopausal, breast cancer, chemotherapy. The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021233966).

[RESULTS] The systematic review included 31 studies, with 26 contributing to the meta-analysis. Eleven studies provided IPD from 1,029 women. Ovarian function resumption rates varied from 24 % to 61 % depending on follow-up time. Pre-chemotherapy AMH was significantly higher in women whose ovarian function resumed, standardized mean difference 0.94 (95 % CI 0.65-1.22) and showed good predictive ability for resumption of ovarian function (AUC 0.79-0.83). However, the identified cut-off values for pre-chemotherapy AMH gave high false negative rates and differed a lot between studies which was much determined by follow-up time, age and used AMH assay.

[CONCLUSION] Pre-chemotherapy AMH shows association with ovarian function resumption, but a clinically reliable cut-off across assays could not be established using individual patient data. Therefore, due to high inter-assay variability, AMH is not suitable for optimizing endocrine therapy in premenopausal breast cancer patients at this time. Standardizing AMH assays can help in further research into a cut-off value.