Uterine sarcoma-current management and experience from a regional cancer centre in North India

We intended to assess the clinicopathological features and treatment outcome in patients of uterine sarcoma.

A retrospective review of medical records of patients of uterine sarcoma (2002-2007) was conducted. Overall survival (OS) was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method.

Forty-two patients met the study criterion [15 carcinosarcoma, 12 endometrial stromal sarcoma, 11 leiomyosarcoma, 3 undifferentiated endometrial sarcoma (UES), and 1 mixed sarcoma]. Median age and performance status were 52 years and ECOG 0, respectively. All patients underwent primary surgery out of which 66.7 % was total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. FIGO (2009) stage was I, II, III, IV and unknown in 66.7, 7.1, 14.3, 9.5, and 2.4 % of the patients. Eight patients were kept on follow-up only. Adjuvant radiation, chemoradiation, and chemotherapy were offered in 8, 9, and 3 patients, respectively. Pelvic radiation: 46 Gray/23 fractions/4.5 weeks and vincristine, adriamycin, cyclophosphamide (VAC) regimen were most commonly used. Overall clinical complete response (CR), stable disease (SD), and progressive disease (PD) were, respectively, 59.5, 2.4, and 26.2 % (response not evaluable in 12 %). In the evaluable patients (N = 33), median OS was noted to be 7.67 months (mean 30.19 months). 1- and 2-year actuarial survival were 45.45 and 36.36 %. Stratified by histology, median survival in patients with carcinosarcoma, endometrial stromal sarcoma, leiomyosarcoma, and UES were, respectively, 6.57, 18.7, 6.8, and 9.38 months. On univariate analysis, response to therapy (p = 0.0003), disease stage (p = 0.00001), tumor size (p = 0.02), and performance status (p = 0.03) were significant predictors of OS. Disease stage (p = 0.005) and response to therapy (p = 0.01) retained significance on multivariate analysis.

Median OS of only 6.57, 6.8, and 9.38 months, respectively, in patients with carcinosarcoma, leiomyosarcoma, and UES in our series reflect the aggressive clinical course and poor prognosis of these rare neoplasms, which mandate intensive multimodality therapy. Even in low-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma, median survival of 18.7 months in our series is far from satisfying. However, small series, poor treatment compliance and socio-economic constraints in the Indian scenario are limiting factors in the result analysis.