Radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment of uterine sarcomas

Abstract

A retrospective evaluation of 87 cases of uterine sarcoma treated during 1965–1980 at two Swedish hospitals has been made. Adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy has been compared with adjuvant chemotherapy. Various types of combination treatments were also evaluated. Both types of adjuvant therapy seem to reduce the failure rate, both locally in the pelvis and at distant sites, although survival, studied by the life table technique, was unaffected. Radiotherapy appears to reduce the number of pelvic failures when used as combination therapy and chemotherapy tends to prevent distant recurrences when used together with surgery. Further prospective and randomized studies are needed, however, to answer the question of the long-term value of adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy in the treatment of uterine sarcomas.