[Prognosis of cancer of the corpus uteri]

A statistical study of 240 cases of cancer of the body of the uterus treated throughout at the Institute Gustave-Roussy has led us to the following conclusions. The number of patients who survive drops rapidly after the first year of follow-up and this phenomenon is particularly marked in women who are more than 60 years of age. Mortality linked to other causes of death does not account for the total falling off in the number of those who survice among the older patients. A study of the clinical spread of the disease shows that most cancers stay confined to the body of the uterus and this really lessens the value of a classification based on spread of the disease for prognostic purposes. A systematic study of hysterograms taken before any treatment is started does on the other hand give us two prognostic pointers. The first is the size of the endometrial cavity and the second the maximum diameter of the tumour. These two radiological characteristics allow us to make an interesting division of cancers that are limited to the body of the uterus. The overall survival rate after 5 years is 61 per cent. When we take into account the dimensions of a tumour we can place patients into two groups; those with tumours that are less than 45 mm in diameter have a 71 per cent survival rate and those with tumours of greater than 45 mm diameter have a survival rate of 45 per cent.