[A clinicopathologic evaluation of "depth" in cases of endometrial adenocarcinoma]

A total of 573 cases of endometrial adenocarcinomas, composed of patients that had been hysterectomized from 1949 to 1985 at the Cancer Institute Hospital in Tokyo, have been clinicopathologically investigated to evaluate the degree of the myometrial invasion, meaning the "Depth" as a postoperative prognostic factor of this type of cancer. These patients were classified into groups, depending on the depth of the invasion. The Depth d group, showing a myometrial invasional depth of over two-thirds of the uterine wall, revealed a rate of 61.3% of the lymph node metastasis positive cases, and accounted for 50.0% of the postoperative survivals. These values were statistically worse, when compared to those of the Depth a to c groups, which showed less invasional depth. Thus it was concluded that "Depth" is an important prognostic factor in cases of an endometrial adenocarcinoma.