Carcinoma of the fallopian tube: a clinicopathological study of 105 cases with observations on staging and prognostic factors.

One hundred five cases of carcinoma of the fallopian tube were subjected to a clinicopathological study to investigate the validity of various prognostic factors. A higher stage of tumor, an absence of closure of the fimbriated end of the tube, and an age of 66 years or older were the major predictors of a shorter length of recurrence-free postoperative survival in a univariate analysis. In a multivariate analysis, however, stage was a highly significant prognostic factor, absence of fimbriated-end closure, marginally significant, and older age, not significant. Within Stage I cases the presence or absence of invasion of the tubal wall, the depth of invasion when present, and the location of the tumor within the tube (fimbrial or nonfimbrial) appeared to be prognostically important. These findings strongly suggest that the FIGO staging system should be expanded to permit staging of noninvasive tubal carcinomas and fimbrial carcinomas, which cannot be staged according to the current system, and that depth of invasion of the tubal wall merits future investigation as an additional prognostic factor.