Endometrial cancer in women 45 years of age or younger

The clinical characteristics and outcomes of endometrial cancer in women 45 years of age or younger evaluated and treated at the community hospital level are presented.

A series of 500 consecutive women with endometrial cancer operated on by the author over a nine-year period of time was used to identify women 45 years of age or younger and compared to older patients from the author's data base.

Although the majority of patients presented with clinical stage I disease, 30% of women 45 years of age or younger had occult metastatic disease and 5.0% had clear cell or papillary serous histology, similar to the older patient population. In addition, survival was similar in both groups of patients. Serum CA-125 was useful in identifying patients with possible occult metastatic disease in the group of women 45 years old or younger.

Patients 45 years of age or younger with uterine cancer are not ipso facto a "lower risk" group of patients; efforts to preserve fertility should be balanced against a thorough effort to identify those individuals at higher risk for occult metastases.