You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Uterine Cancer
Treatment Failure in Endometrial Carcinoma
  1. Huei-Jean Huang, MD, MPH*,†,
  2. Yun-Hsin Tang, MD*,†,
  3. Hung-Hsueh Chou, MD*,†,
  4. Lan-Yan Yang, PhD†,‡,
  5. Angel Chao, MD, PhD*,†,
  6. Yi-Ting Huang, MD‡,§,
  7. Gigin Lin, MD, PhD†∥,
  8. Feng-Yuan Liu, MD†,,
  9. Ting-Chang Chang, MD, MPH*,† and
  10. Chyong-Huey Lai, MD*,†
  1. *Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine;
  2. †Gynecologic Cancer Research Center, and
  3. ‡Biostatistics and Informatics Unit, Clinical Trial Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital; Departments of
  4. §Radiation Oncology,
  5. ∥Medical Imaging and Intervention, and
  6. Nuclear Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
  1. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Chyong-Huey Lai, MD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, 5 Fu-Shin St, Kueishan, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan. E-mail: sh46erry{at}ms6.hinet.net.

Abstract

Objective Our aim was to investigate the outcomes and prognostic factors after treatment failure of endometrial cancer.

Methods A total of 923 endometrial cancer patients were treated between 2000 and 2010, of which 109 experienced treatment failure. Treatment failure was defined as relapse after complete removal of all cancerous lesions or persistent/progressive disease despite treatment. Variables including clinicopathological features at initial treatment, type of primary treatment, failure pattern, salvage treatment, and outcomes were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were compared with log-rank test. Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to identify significant prognostic factors.

Results Eighteen cases with persistent/progressive disease died shortly from primary diagnosis (1–23 months). The remaining 91 patients had recurrences in vagina only (8.8%), pelvis (3.3%), distant (63.7%), and combined pelvic-distant sites (24.2%). Median time to recurrence was 13.3 months (3.2–97.2 months). The median follow-up after recurrence of survivors was 60.5 months (10.6–121.7 months). The median survival after recurrence (SAR) was 20.3 months (1.9–121.7 months) with 5-year SAR rate of 32.4%. By multivariate analysis, initial stage II to IV (hazards ratio [HR], 3.41; 1.53–7.60; P = 0.003), type II histology (HR, 2.50; 1.28–4.90; P = 0.008), positive peritoneal cytology (HR, 2.23; 1.07–4.68; P = 0.033), and recurrence at multiple sites (HR, 2.51; 1.30–4.84; P = 0.006) were significantly associated with poor SAR. The 5-year SAR rates in patients with solitary vaginal, nodal/liver, or pulmonary/bony recurrence were 83.3%, 50.5%, and 24.2%, respectively. Ten cases with resectable or irradiatable recurrence at multiple sites or multiple relapses attained SAR greater than 5 years after multimodality salvage therapy.

Conclusions Initial stage II to IV, type 2 histology, positive cytology, and recurrence at multiple sites were significant poor prognostic factors. Curative intent salvage therapy remains a viable option for cases with resectable or irradiatable multiple recurrences and solitary distant metastasis.

  • Endometrial cancer
  • Recurrence
  • Prognostic factors
  • Salvage

https://doi.org/10.1097/IGC.0000000000000131

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Footnotes

    • This study was supported by grants from the Chang Gung Medical Foundation (CMRPG391442 and OMRPG3A0011) and the Department of Health–Taiwan (DOH102-TD-C-111-006).

    • Huei-Jean Huang and Yun-Hsin Tang are cofirst authors.

    • The authors declare no conflicts of interest.