Postoperative radiotherapy in stage I endometrial adenocarcinoma

To evaluate postoperative whole pelvic radiation for high-risk patients with Stage I endometrial adenocarcinoma.

One hunderd and twenty-two patients with irregular premenopausal or postmenopausal haemorrhage were included into the study. Fractional curettage was performed in all cases. When the pathohistological report confirmed endometrial adenocarcinoma, abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed. Low-risk patients include women with Stage IA tumours and Stage IB grade 1 or 2 histology. High-risk group include patients with Stage IB grade 3 tumours and Stage IC carcinomas. High-risk patients received whole pelvic radiotherapy between two and four weeks after surgery.

Eighty-two patients (67.21%) were low-risk and forty patients (32.79%) were high-risk. In the low-risk group of patients, CA-125 was negative in ten cases and positive in 72 patients with a mean value of 30.12 +/- 12.42 U/ml serum. In the high-risk group of the patients, CA-125 was negative in two cases and positive in 38 patients with a mean value of 60, 48 +/- 20, 14 U/ml serum. Locoregional recurrences were diagnosed in four patients (4.87%) in the surgery group and in two patients (5.00%) assigned to radiotherapy. The incidence of distant metastases was 2.43% in the surgery group and 2.50% in the radiotherapy group. Overall survival at five years was 90.25% in the low-risk group and 87.50% in the high-risk group of patients.

Five-year overall survival, locoregional and distant metastasis were similar in the low-risk and high-risk groups of patients. That emphasizes the value of whole pelvic radiation in patients with unfavourable prognostic factors in Stage I endometrial cancer.