Clinicopathological and survival analysis of 34 cases of uterine clear cell carcinoma

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the clinicopathological features and prognostic factors of patients with uterine clear cell carcinoma (UCCC). Methods: UCCC patients who underwent surgery and complete follow-up at Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis were used for survival analysis. Results: The study included 34 patients. Only 18 patients (52.9%) were diagnosed with UCCC preoperatively and 8 patients (23.5%) underwent UCCC standard comprehensive staging surgery. Among the 34 patients, stage ⅠA was 17 cases (50.0%), stage ⅠB was 1 case (2.9%), stage Ⅱ was 4 cases (11.8%), stage ⅢA was 2 cases (5.9%), stage ⅢB was 1 case (2.9%), stage ⅢC1 was 5 cases (14.7%) and stage ⅣB was 4 cases (11.8%). The median follow-up period was 72 months, 5-years disease-free survival (DFS) rate and overall survival (OS) rates for all patients were 79.1% and 81.3%, respectively. Univariate analysis result showed that preoperative CA125 level, range of lymphadenectomy, tumor stage and peritoneal cytology were significantly associated with DFS (P<0.05). Preoperative CA125 level, range of lymphadenectomy, tumor stage, peritoneal cytology and lymph vascular space invasion were significantly associated with OS (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis result showed that peritoneal cytology was the only independent prognostic factor for DFS, the relapse risk of peritoneal cytology positive patients was 11.47 folds higher than that of the negative patients (P=0.009). Tumor stage was the only independent prognostic factor for OS, the death risk of ⅣB stage patients was 25.29 folds higher than that of theⅠA stage (P=0.009). Conclusions: The preoperative pathological diagnosis of UCCC is difficult, which results in incomplete surgical staging. Peritoneal cytology and tumor stage are independent prognostic factors for DFS and OS of UCCC patients, which deserve much more attention in clinical practice.