Clinic, pathologicand biologic prognostic factors in endometrial cancer. A literature review.

Abstract

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecological malignancy in western countries which primarily affects postmenopausal women. The aim of this review is to outline the most important clinic, pathologic and biologic prognostic parameters in order to obtain the treatment outcomes in EC. Medline and Pubmed were searched for English language articles using keywords (i.e. “endometrial cancer”, “prognostic factors”). systematic reviews, retro-prospective studies, controlled and randomized clinical trials focused on prognostic information were selected. Bibliographies of articles found were searched for further relevant titles. The most significant reported prognostic factors are age, International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology stage, the histological subtype and grade of the tumor, peritoneal cytology, lymphovascular space involvement, invasion of the myometrum, tumors that extend to the cervical stroma,extra-uterine disease,tumor size,as well as the presence and extent of lymph node metastasis. Molecular biomarkers such as mutations in tumor suppressor genes, deoxyribonucleic acid mismatch repair, and the presence of a triple negative phenotype are considered worse prognostic factors, and may lead to a poor survival.