Surgical staging and high dose rate brachytherapy for endometrial cancer: limiting external radiotherapy to node-positive tumors

To evaluate the efficacy and morbidity of surgical staging and high dose rate brachytherapy for women with stage I-IIIA endometrial cancer.

Sixty consecutive patients underwent surgical staging consisting of total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, peritoneal cytology, bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy, periaortic lymphadenectomy, and omentectomy. High dose rate brachytherapy was delivered postoperatively in three fractions for a total of 2100 cGy. Only patients with nodal metastasis received external radiotherapy.

Twenty-two tumors (37%) were considered high-risk uterine disease because of deep invasion (stage IC), cervical involvement (stage II), positive peritoneal cytology (stage IIIA), or poor differentiation (grade 3). Lymph node metastases were detected in five patients. There was no surgical mortality, and morbidity from surgery and high dose rate brachytherapy was minimal. At a median follow-up of 3 years, there has been one recurrence. The conventional practice of postoperative external radiotherapy was altered in 23 of 60 patients (38%): 22 women with high-risk uterine factors did not receive external radiotherapy, and one patient with low-risk uterine factors (less than 50% myometrial invasion, grade 2) received external radiotherapy because of microscopic pelvic lymph node metastasis.

Surgical staging and high dose rate brachytherapy without external radiotherapy for stage I-IIIA endometrial cancer were associated with minimal morbidity and produced excellent survival.