title: Treatment of uterine sarcoma. A survey of 49 patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are employed in the treatment of uterine sarcoma. We claim to evaluate the role of radiotherapy in the treatment of uterine sarcoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  We report a retrospective study of 49 patients with uterine sarcoma treated from 1990-1999 at Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute in Brno. All 49 patients had surgery, 19 (38.7%) had adjuvant radiotherapy and 25 (51%) had chemotherapy. Using the FIGO classification: 71.4% had stage I, 6.1% stage II, 16.3%, stage III and 6.1% stage IVa disease. 42.9% of tumors were mixed Müllerian tumors, 34.7% leiomyosarcomas and 22.4% endometrial stromal sarcomas. 12 cases (24.5%) had a local recurrence, 7 (14.3%) had hematogenous dissemination. There was an increased disease free interval (DFI) for patients treated with adjuvant radiotherapy (p = 0.005). The DFI was favourably influenced by the stage of the disease. Of 12 patients with a local recurrence only one had postoperative radiotherapy. Radiotherapy had an impact on overall survival (OS). The five-year OS probability was 51.6% without radiotherapy and 88.9% with radiotherapy (p = 0.0066).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that postoperative radiotherapy in our series of patients diagnosed with uterine sarcoma has an impact on locoregional and disease-free progression intervals (LRFI, DFI) and overall survival (OS). The most important prognostic factor is the extend of the disease (stage). Stage I patients have a significantly better survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy, Masaryk Cancer Memorial Institute, Brno, Czech Republic. soumarova@mou.cz
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Soumarová
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Horová
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Seneklová
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ruzicková
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Horová
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Budíková
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Slampa
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kalábová
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D018203:Sarcoma, Endometrial Stromal / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*