Role of surgical staging and adjuvant treatment in uterine serous carcinoma

This study evaluates the association of clinical and pathologic characteristics of patients with uterine serous carcinoma (USC) with disease recurrence. Surgically-staged patients with USC at a single institution were identified and clinical and pathologic variables were compared. Of the 51 patients included in this analysis, 75% percent received adjuvant chemotherapy, 51% received radiation therapy, and 47% received both. After a median follow-up of 33 months, 42% of patients had disease recurrence. On multivariable analysis, positive pelvic lymph nodes were associated with a shorter interval between surgery and recurrence: 13.6 months progression-free survival (PFS) with positive vs 17.2 months with negative lymph nodes (p = 0.05). Patients with early-stage disease who did not receive any adjuvant treatments had a significantly greater risk of disease recurrence (44.4% vs 7.70%, p = 0.043). In this population of surgically-staged patients with USC, pelvic lymph node metastases were predictive of a shorter PFS.