Adjuvant chemotherapy in stage I uterine endometrial carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
We have assessed prognostic factors and the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage I uterine endometrial carcinoma.


METHODS
251 primary surgically treated stage I patients were studied. Prognostic factors were evaluated and 5-year and 10-year survival rates were compared in patients with lymph-vascular space invasion to investigate whether adjuvant chemotherapy improves survival.


RESULTS
The overall 5-year and 10-year survival rates were 94% and 93%. Multivariate analysis indicates that lymph-vascular space invasion is the most significant prognostic factor in both 5- and 10-year survival rates (P<0.001 at both times) and stage/depth of invasion is significant for the 10-year survival rate (P=0.04). Of 54 patients with lymph-vascular space invasion, statistically significant differences were observed in 10-year survival rate (P=0.02) between patients who had surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (n=23) and patients who had surgery alone (n=31). Toxicities were mild to moderate (30%).


CONCLUSIONS
The clinical importance of lymph-vascular space invasion and the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy were confirmed. This observation warrants a larger comparative study with adjuvant chemotherapy.
Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Chiba Cancer Center, Chiba, Japan. mhirai@internet.chiba-cc.pref.chiba.jp
M
M
Hirai
M
M
Hirono
T
T
Oosaki
Y
Y
Hayashi
T
T
Yoshihara
M
M
Itami
D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate