Chemotherapy for high-risk early-stage endometrial cancer

Adjuvant therapy in high-risk early endometrial carcinoma: a retrospective analysis of 46 cases

OBJECTIVE

We assessed the prognostic factors and the efficacy of adjuvant therapy and reviewed randomized studies carried out on patients receiving adjuvant therapy with early endometrial carcinoma.

METHODS

One hundred and five patients that received primary surgical treatment for stage IB, IC and II endometrial cancer were enrolled in this study. The clinical outcomes were compared among the patients with variable prognostic factors and adjuvant treatments.

RESULTS

One hundred and five patients fulfilled the eligibility criteria and 46 patients (43.8%) underwent adjuvant therapy. Disease recurrence occurred in nine patients within a median time of 24 months. Cervical involvement was an independent prognostic factor for the disease-free survival rates. Eight of 16 patients with FIGO stage II disease received adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin and etoposide (or cyclophosphamide) or combined chemoradiation. The 5-year disease-free survival rate for these patients was 87.5%, a value significantly higher than for patients that received radiation therapy alone (30%).

CONCLUSION

Adjuvant chemotherapy or combination chemo-radiotherapy might be superior to radiation therapy alone in high-risk early endometrial cancer patients.

Molecular target therapies in endometrial cancer: from the basic research to the clinic

Molecular targeted therapies represent an interesting field of pharmacological research in endometrial cancer. The loss of PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10) function, with consequent activation of the PI3K (phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase)-AKT (serine/threonine-specific protein kinase)-mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) signaling pathway, occurs in 32-83% of endometrioid-type endometrial carcinomas, thus suggesting a role for mTOR inhibition in this malignancy. Some analogues of rapamycin (CCI-799, RAD-001, AP-23573) have been developed and tested in different tumors including endometrioid-type endometrial carcinoma. For example, AP-23573 achieved a clinical benefit response in 33% of 27 heavily pretreated patients, and CCI-799 obtained a 26% partial response rate and a 63% stable disease rate in 19 patients. Overexpression of ErbB-2 (epidermal growth factor type II receptor) has been detected in 18-80% of uterine papillary serous carcinomas (UPSCs), thus providing a biological rationale for the use of trastuzumab in these aggressive tumors. UPSC often overexpresses claudin-3 and claudin-4, which represent the epithelial receptors for Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE). CPE-mediated therapy might be a novel treatment modality for UPSC resistant to chemotherapy. A better understanding of the signaling transduction pathways that are dysregulated in endometrioid-type endometrial carcinoma and UPSC will allow the development of novel molecular targeted therapies.