Postoperative chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment for endometrioid adenocarcinoma: early stage vs late stage

Adjuvant chemotherapy treatment for different endometrial cancer stages is still debated. We aimed to evaluate the outcome of early (FIGO I–II) vs late stage (FIGO III–IV) endometrial cancer in an institutional experience using chemotherapy only after surgery.

Charts of patients with endometrial carcinoma who underwent surgery with postoperative chemotherapy between February 2012 and December 2017 were retrospectively identified, and the recurrence as well as prognosis were assessed.

Of the 272 eligible endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EA) patients, 127 had received chemotherapy, 145 did not receive chemotherapy; 37 were in late stage (FIGO III–IV) and 235 were in early stage (FIGO I–II). In the late stage group, patients with no chemotherapy had worse overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) as compared to the patients taking chemotherapy (OS, 28.6% vs 76.4%, P = 0.059; RFS, 17.1% vs 66.4%, P = 0.053). However, in the early stage group, there was no significant difference between the OS and RFS between the patients that were receiving and not receiving chemotherapy (OS, 84.1% vs 93.3%, P = 0.789; RFS, 76.7% vs 72.4%, P = 0.924). Independent predictive factors of recurrence were age over 53 years, histological grade G3, as well as late stages (FIGO III–IV), while independent predictive factors of OS were age over 53 years, deeper depth of myometrial invasion, and late stages (FIGO III–IV).

In late stages, patients with chemotherapy had lower recurrence rate and favorable OS as compared to patients not taking chemotherapy, which was the benefit of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, and chemotherapy might be strongly considered in late stage EA.