Stage III and stage IV endometrial carcinoma: a review of 41 cases.

Forty-one patients with clinical stage III and IV carcinoma of the endometrium presented to Jackson Memorial Hospital between the years 1977 and 1988. These patients were studied as to their presenting symptoms, prognostic factors, therapeutic regimens, and survival. Sixty-one percent of our patients presented with postmenopausal bleeding. Prognostic factors included extent of disease and tumor bulk rather than histologic type, grade, or depth of myometrial invasion. Overall 5-year survival was 7/32 (22%), with 6/22 (27%) for stage III and 1/10 (10%) for stage IV. Those patients who received surgery plus radiation fared better than those who received either alone. Hormonal therapy offered little, if any, benefit. CAP-M chemotherapy was used as adjunctive treatment in 10 patients and its use is discussed. It is our hope that we may later use this study to compare the newer surgical staging in advanced cases of endometrial carcinoma with the previously used clinical staging system.