Curative effect of second curettage for treatment of gestational trophoblastic disease - Results of the Belgian registry for gestational trophoblastic disease

•Patients with post-mole gestational trophoblastic neoplasia can benefit from a second curettage to avoid chemotherapy.•Succes rates are higher when hCG level is lower than 5 000 IU/L and even more if hCG is below 1 000 IU/L.•This is the first study done by the Belgian Register for Trophoblastic Diseases. We assessed the curative effect of a second curettage in patients with persistent hCG serum levels after first curettage for a gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD). This prospective observational study used the data of the Belgian register for GTD between July 2012 and January 2017. We analysed the data of patients who underwent a second curettage. We included 313 patients in the database. Primary endpoints were need for second curettage and chemotherapy. Thirty-seven patients of the study population (12 %) underwent a second curettage. 20 had persistent human chorionic gonadotropin hormone (hCG) elevation before second curettage. Of them, 9 patients (45 %) needed no further treatment afterwards. Eleven patients (55 %) needed further chemotherapy. Nine (82 %) were cured with single-agent chemotherapy and 2 patients (18 %) needed multi-agent chemotherapy. Of the 37 patients, patients with hCG levels below 5000 IU/L undergoing a second curettage were cured without chemotherapy in 65 % versus 45 % of patients with hCG level more than 5000 IU/L. Of the ten patients with a hCG level below 1000 IU/L, eight were cured without chemotherapy. Patients with post-mole gestational trophoblastic neoplasia can benefit from a second curettage to avoid chemotherapy, especially when the hCG level is lower than 5000 IU/L.