Low risk stage I endometrial carcinoma: prognostic factors and outcomes

The aim of the study is to evaluate clinical features of patients with low-risk stage I endometrium cancer, who received adjuvant therapy or followed with observation only and to analyse the effects of known prognostic factors in this group of patients. A total of 246 patients (median age: 53, range: 31-77) with low-risk stage I endometrial cancer, who were just followed postoperatively (156 patients) or received adjuvant radiotherapy (90 patients) between 1996 and 2007 were reviewed retrospectively. Local recurrence was detected in four patients, distant metastasis occurred in seven patients, and two patients had both local recurrence and distant metastasis. The 83.3% of recurrences were on the vaginal stump. Five- and ten-year local control (LC) and overall survival (OS) rates are 97.6%, 97.6% and 96.4%, 93.5% in the observation and adjuvant therapy groups, respectively, whereas distant control rates are 96.7% and 96.3%. In multivariate analysis, only age and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) were found to affect OS and disease-free survival (DFS). LC and OS rates are high in the low-risk group of patients; however, current adjuvant therapies did not improve the outcomes. Age over 60 years and the presence of LVI have negative effects on outcomes in this group of patients.