Effects of postoperative chemotherapy on the prognosis of patients with high-risk early stage endometrial cancer

Abstract

To investigate the effects of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with high-risk stage I and II (early stage) endometrial cancer. From Jan. 1994 to Jun. 2007, 106 cases with early stage high-risk endometrial cancer were treated in Peking University First Hospital and were divided into two groups based with postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT group, 66 cases) and without adjuvant chemotherapy (control group, 40 cases). The 5-year survival rates was calculated by Kaplan-Meier method. Prognosis factors were further determined by univariate analysis and Cox proportional hazards models. The 5-year survival rate in the ACT group was significantly higher than that in control group (94% and 81%, P<0.05). On the univariate analysis, the 5-year survival rate of patients received four or more cycles combined chemotherapy was higher than that of cases less than four cycles chemotherapy (100% and 86%, P<0.05). While, it were not significant difference in age, stage, histology, grade, radiotherapy alone, chemotherapy combined radiotherapy or progestin hormonal therapy (P>0.05). On the multivariate analysis, adjuvant chemotherapy was found to affect independent prognostic covariates on early stage cases (P<0.05). Postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy maybe improve the prognosis of patients with high-risk early stage endometrial cancer, which need to be further study by prospective randomized trials.