Purpose: We studied the impact of different prognostic factors on the clinical outcome for the patients with pathologic Stage IIA endometrial adenocarcinoma who had surgical staging (SS) and received adjuvant high-dose-rate intravaginal brachytherapy (IVB) alone.
Methods and materials: Sixty-one patients with Stage IIA endometrial adenocarcinoma were retrospectively studied. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to study prognostic factors.
Results: All the patients underwent SS between July 1994 and December 2005. The median age was 64 years (range, 46-71 years). The median number of lymph nodes sampled was 8 (range, 7-12). All the patients received adjuvant IVB to doses of 35-36Gy in four to five fractions prescribed to the surface. The myometrial invasion was <50% in 33 patients and > or =50% for 28 patients. The lymphovascular invasion (LVI) and the lower uterine segment involvement were identified in 18% and 61%, respectively. At a median followup of 64 months (range, 8-153 months), there were 7 patients who developed recurrences. On univariate analysis, the only factor significantly predictive for locoregional recurrence was LVI (p=0.01). In regard to overall survival (OS), factors that were significantly predictive on univariate analysis were LVI (p=0.03), tumor grade (p=0.04), and depth of myometrial invasion (p=0.04). The 5-year rates of vaginal and pelvic recurrences were 1.7% and 8.2%, respectively. The 5-year local control and OS rates were both 87%.
Conclusions: Our results suggest excellent local control with adjuvant IVB alone for selected patients with Stage IIA endometrial adenocarcinoma. The patients with positive LVI and deep myometrial invasion have a worse locoregional control and OS despite SS and adjuvant IVB.