title: Management of high-grade stage I adenocarcinoma of the endometrium: hysterectomy following low dose external beam pelvic irradiation.
abstract: Sixty-eight patients with FIGO stage I, grade 2 or 3 adenocarcinoma of the endometrium were treated according to a protocol involving 10 Gy external pelvic irradiation, prompt hysterectomy with surgical staging, and postoperative therapy individualized according to surgical-pathologic findings. Five-year survival for the entire group was 78%, 87% for those with grade 2 disease, and 59% for those with grade 3 disease. For patients whose disease was found to be confined to the uterus, surgical stage I, the 5-year survival was 98%. Patients with surgical stage I, grades 2 and 3 disease had 97 and 100% probabilities of surviving 5 years, respectively. Five-year disease-free probability was 96% for all patients with surgical stage I carcinoma, 97% for patients with grade 2 disease, and 94% for patients with grade 3 disease. Myometrial penetration influenced survival; no patient with less than 50% myometrial penetration died or suffered a relapse, while only 40% of patients with deeper penetration survived 5 years. Twenty-three percent of patients with surgically confirmed disease spread beyond the corpus survived 5 years; 29% remained disease-free at this interval. Ten of the 68 patients developed recurrences, none has had a known pelvic recurrence. Two major complications, one requiring surgery, were seen, both in patients receiving postoperative external beam irradiation. The rationale behind low-dose, preoperative external pelvic irradiation is described, and an approach to high-grade, FIGO stage I adenocarcinoma of the endometrium is outlined.
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007044:Hysterectomy; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000628:therapy; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000379:methods; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*