Role of endocervical curettage in the preoperative staging of endometrial carcinoma

Abstract Objective The presence of cervical involvement is important to establish a rational treatment for endometrial cancer patients. We investigated the value of preoperative endocervical curettage (ECC) in predicting cervical involvement. Methods Preoperative ECC of 290 patients with clinical stage I epithelial endometrial cancer was compared with histopathology of the uterus. Results Amongst all ECCs, 245 (84.5%) were negative and 45 (15.5%) were positive for endometrial cancer. In the uterine specimen, cervical involvement was found in 20% (58/290). PPV and NPV of ECC were 86.7% and 92.2%. False negative and false positive ECC occurred in 6.6% and 2.1%. Of all patients with positive ECC, 46.7% had FIGO stage II disease and 46.7% had extra uterine tumor spread (FIGO III, IV). Conclusion ECC is an acceptable diagnostic tool to predict the presence or absence of cervical involvement in early stage endometrial cancer patients.