New aspects of endometrial carcinoma

We have presented a review of aspects of endometrial carcinoma that have received prominent attention since the last review of this subject published in these pages in 1976. These include the relationship of exogenous oestrogens to the development of endometrial cancer; the differential diagnosis of carcinoma from endometrial metaplasias and hyperplasias; the prognostic and therapeutic significance of various histological patterns of carcinoma, including adenoacanthoma, mixed adenosquamous carcinoma, and papillary serous carcinoma; pathological and clinical distinctions between 'true' myometrial, cervical and ovarian invasion and histological findings which mimic these patterns but do not have the same unfavourable prognostic significance; and the prognostic significance of partially or completely host-related factors such as immunological response, hormone receptors, and both exogenous and endogenous hyperoestrinism. Many of the questions posed here remain at least partially unresolved, and it is hoped that further studies will be performed in these areas.