Impact of adjuvant treatment on outcome in high-risk early-stage endometrial cancer: a retrospective three-center study

Assessing para-aortic nodal status in high-grade endometrial cancer patients with negative pelvic sentinel lymph node biopsy

OBJECTIVE

To determine the accuracy of pelvic sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLN) in detecting positive para-aortic (PA) lymph nodes in high-grade uterine cancer, and to determine the recurrence rate in patients with high-grade uterine cancers who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy based on negative pelvic SLNs.

METHODS

This was a retrospective cohort study of patients with newly diagnosed, high-grade endometrial cancer who underwent surgery, including pelvic SLNs with or without PA node dissection, at a tertiary care institution between 2015 and 2020. Baseline demographics, surgical management, pathology data, and outcomes were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and survival analysis.

RESULTS

Postoperative histology of the 110 patients meeting inclusion criteria was 45.5% grade 3 endometrioid, 36.4% serous, 10.9% clear cell, and 7.3% carcinosarcoma. On final pathology, 63.7% were stage 1, and 23.6% were stage 3C with positive nodes. A total of 63 patients (57.3%) had a PA lymph node dissection (56 bilateral, 7 unilateral) in addition to the pelvic SLN. Among this group, 5.8% (95% confidence interval 1.2%-16.0%) had a positive PA node despite a negative pelvic SLN. Among those with a negative pelvic SLN and no adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 75), the rate of distant recurrence was 14.7%, and 3-year recurrence-free survival was 71.9%.

CONCLUSION

The rate of isolated PA node metastasis in high-grade endometrial cancers despite a negative pelvic SLN may be significantly higher than the accepted rate of isolated PA node metastasis in low-grade endometrial cancer. This supports adjuvant treatment decisions continuing to incorporate primary tumor pathology and molecular classification.

Real-world perioperative treatment patterns and burden of recurrent disease in patients with high-risk endometrial cancer: a SEER-Medicare study

OBJECTIVES

To elucidate unmet needs in high-risk endometrial cancer (EC), this study described perioperative treatment patterns in Medicare beneficiaries with high-risk EC and quantified the impact of disease recurrence on clinical and economic outcomes among patients receiving adjuvant therapy.

METHODS

Patients aged ≥66 years with high-risk EC (stage I/II EC of non-endometrioid histology or stage III/IVA EC of any histology) receiving hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy from SEER-Medicare data (2007-2019) were identified; perioperative treatment patterns were described. Post-operative treatment patterns were described among patients receiving adjuvant therapy; overall survival (OS), all-cause and EC-related healthcare resource utilization and costs were evaluated from recurrence date (using a claims-based algorithm developed with clinical input) for recurrent patients and from a frequency-matched date for non-recurrent patients.

RESULTS

Of 2,279 patients receiving EC surgery, 3.1% received neoadjuvant therapy and 55.3% received adjuvant therapy. Among 1,199 patients receiving adjuvant therapy, systemic adjuvant therapy with radiation (38.9%) was most common. Median OS was 1.4 years among 378 (31.5%) recurrent patients identified over a median follow-up of 3.7 years. Recurrent patients had significantly higher per-patient-year rates of all-cause outpatient visits (37.7 vs. 22.6), EC-related outpatient visits (14.5 vs. 3.0), and all-cause hospitalizations (1.3 vs. 0.4) than non-recurrent patients, and an excess of $84,562 and $62,128 in all-cause and EC-related annual costs, predominantly driven by hospitalizations.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings highlight the considerable clinical and economic burden experienced by patients with high-risk EC experiencing recurrence and emphasize the unmet need for novel therapies in early settings to mitigate this burden.

Radiation Therapy for Endometrial Cancer: An American Society for Radiation Oncology Clinical Practice Guideline

PURPOSE

With the results of several recently published clinical trials, this guideline informs on the use of adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) and systemic therapy in the treatment of endometrial cancer. Updated evidence-based recommendations provide indications for adjuvant RT and the associated techniques, the utilization and sequencing of adjuvant systemic therapies, and the effect of surgical staging techniques and molecular tumor profiling.

METHODS

The American Society for Radiation Oncology convened a multidisciplinary task force to address 6 key questions that focused on the adjuvant management of patients with endometrial cancer. The key questions emphasized the (1) indications for adjuvant RT, (2) RT techniques, target volumes, dose fractionation, and treatment planning aims, (3) indications for systemic therapy, (4) sequencing of systemic therapy with RT, (5) effect of lymph node assessment on utilization of adjuvant therapy, and (6) effect of molecular tumor profiling on utilization of adjuvant therapy. Recommendations were based on a systematic literature review and created using a predefined consensus-building methodology and system for quality of evidence grading and strength of recommendation.

RESULTS

The task force recommends RT (either vaginal brachytherapy or external beam RT) be given based on the patient's clinical-pathologic risk factors to reduce risk of vaginal and/or pelvic recurrence. When external beam RT is delivered, intensity modulated RT with daily image guided RT is recommended to reduce acute and late toxicity. Chemotherapy is recommended for patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage I to II with high-risk histologies and those with FIGO stage III to IVA with any histology. When sequencing chemotherapy and RT, there is no prospective data to support an optimal sequence. Sentinel lymph node mapping is recommended over pelvic lymphadenectomy for surgical nodal staging. Data on sentinel lymph node pathologic ultrastaging status supports that patients with isolated tumor cells be treated as node negative and adjuvant therapy based on uterine risk factors and patients with micrometastases be treated as node positive. The available data on molecular characterization of endometrial cancer are compelling and should be increasingly considered when making recommendations for adjuvant therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

These recommendations guide evidence-based best clinical practices on the use of adjuvant therapy for endometrial cancer.

Research on the Guiding Effect of CTCs on Postoperative Adjuvant Therapy for Patients with Early Stage Endometrial Cancer

Endometrial tumor has increased in occurrence and fatality in China during the last 11 years, owing to inconsistent hormone use and modifications in people living surrounding and lifestyles. One of the three main gynaecological tumors is endometrial carcinoma (EC). Longer waiting duration of operation was linked to a lower chance of sustainability in endometrial tumor patients. Despite the great sustainability rate of endometrial tumor, only around 46 percent of patients undergo adjuvant treatment. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), and circulating free DNA (cfDNA) are the most investigated tumor noninvasive indicators. These circulating biomarkers are important in the knowledge of metastasis and tumorigenesis, and they could help researchers comprehend how cancer dynamics evolve throughout the therapy and illness development. In patients with solid tumor, the existence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood is linked to a weak prognosis. However, there is a scarcity of information on how to detect CTCs in endometrial cancer (EC). Hence, in this paper, we analyze the guiding effect of CTCs on postoperative adjuvant treatment for sufferers with initial phase endometrial tumor using multi-cox regression method. The dataset is selected and the blood samples are collected using plasma separation method. The CTC is detected using differential diagnosis. The morphology and biological features, Immunocytochemistry, Genomic analysis, Transcriptomic analysis, Proteomic analysis, and molecular analysis are performed and the outcomes are evaluated.

Quantification of recurrence risk based on number of adverse prognostic factors in women with stage I uterine endometrioid carcinoma

Objective

The goal was to develop an updated model to predict the risk of recurrence, based on the number of adverse pathologic features in women with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage I uterine endometrioid carcinoma, who did not undergo any adjuvant treatment.

Material and Methods

Women at a single center who underwent surgical staging without adjuvant therapy between January 1990 and December 2019 were included. Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify independent predictors of relapse free survival (RFS). Prognostic groups were then created based on the number of independent predictors of recurrence that were identified (0, 1, or 2-3 risk factors). Overall survival (OS) and disease specific survival (DSS) were also calculated for each group.

Results

In total 1133 women were eligible for inclusion. Median follow-up was 84 months. Independent prognostic factors of recurrence included: age ≥60; grade 2 or 3 differentiation; and presence of lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI). Due to the small number of patients with either 2 or 3 risk factors, these groups were combined into one (group 2/3). Isolated vaginal cuff recurrence was the most common site of recurrence in all study groups (2%, 7%, and 17% for groups 0, 1, and 2/3, respectively). Five-year RFS rates were 96%, 85%, and 57% for groups 0, 1, and 2/3 (p<0.01), respectively. Five-year DSS rates were 99%, 96%, and 85% and 5-year OS rates were 94%, 85%, and 62% (p<0.01), respectively.

Conclusion

We identified older age, high grade, and presence of LVSI as independent predictors of recurrence for women with stage I uterine endometrioid carcinoma. Using these prognostic factors, recurrence risk can be quantified for individual patients, and these factors can be used in deciding the appropriate adjuvant management course.

Construction and validation of nomograms for predicting the prognosis of grade 3 endometrial endometrioid adenocarcinoma cancers: a SEER-based study

Most cases of endometrial adenocarcinoma (EAC) are diagnosed early and have a good prognosis; however, grade 3 (G3) EACs have poor outcomes. We retrospectively analyzed the data of 11,519 patients with G3 EACs registered between 2004 and 2015 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program database and constructed a nomogram to guide clinicians in decision-making and accurate prediction of the prognosis. The caret package was used to divide samples into a training set and a validation set. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed, and a nomogram was constructed. A calibration curve was plotted, and a decision curve analysis was performed to verify the accuracy and clinical utility in both cohorts. The Cox regression analysis revealed that age, race, tumor size, number of lymph nodes resected, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, tumor/node stage, and adjuvant therapy were the prognostic factors for G3 EAC, and these were included in the nomogram. The area under the curve values of the training cohort for 1-, 3-, and 5-year were 0.832, 0.798, and 0.784, respectively for the overall survival (OS) group, and 0.858, 0.812, and 0.799, respectively for the cancer specific survival (CSS) group. A nomogram was constructed to predict the survival rate of patients with G3 EACs more accurately. The predictive nomogram will help clinicians manage patients with G3 EACs more effectively in terms of clinical prognosis.