Simultaneous appearance of ovarian and endometrial carcinoma: a therapeutic challenge

We have analyzed 37 cases of simultaneous appearance of carcinoma in the ovary and endometrium. This paper deals with the question of whether they should be considered stage III endometrial carcinomas, stage II ovarian carcinomas or independent primary tumors. The cases were grouped according to their histology as endometrioid ovarian carcinomas with endometrial carcinoma (group A), same carcinoma, but not of endometrial origin in both organs (group B) and histologically different concomitant carcinomas of ovary and endometrium (group C). Although our series was small, the survival was better than could have been expected either for stage III endometrial carcinoma, or stage II ovarian carcinoma. This supports the view that many of those tumors should be considered independent stage I carcinomas. Another fact in favour of this hypothesis is the strong correlation between myometrial invasion and prognosis in these cases, which is comparable to that found in endometrial carcinoma alone.