Prognostic significance of positive peritoneal cytology in endometrial carcinoma confined to the uterus

A retrospective analysis was performed to evaluate the prognostic significance of peritoneal cytology in patients with endometrial carcinoma limited to the uterus. A total of 280 patients with surgically staged endometrial carcinoma that was histologically confined to the uterus were examined clinicopathologically. The median length of follow-up was 62 (range, 12 - 135) months. All patients underwent hysterectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy with selective lymphadenectomy, and only three patients received adjuvant postoperative therapy. No preoperative adjuvant therapy was employed. In all, 48 patients (17%) had positive peritoneal cytology. The 5-year survival rate among patients with positive or negative peritoneal cytology was 9 1 or 95%, respectively, showing no significant difference (log-rank, P = 0.42). The disease-free survival rate at 36 months was 90% among patients with positive cytology, compared with that of 94% among patients with negative cytology, and the difference was not significant (log-rank, P = 0.52). Multivariate proportional hazards model revealed only histologic grade to be an independent prognostic factor of survival (P = 0.0003, 95% Cl 3.02 - 40.27) among the factors analysed (age, peritoneal cytology, and depth of myometrial invasion). Multivariate analysis revealed that histologic grade (P = 0.02, 95% Cl 1.21 -9.92) was also the only independent prognostic factor of disease-free survival. We concluded that the presence of positive peritoneal cytology is not an independent prognostic factor in patients with endometrial carcinoma confined to the uterus, and adjuvant therapy does not appear to be beneficial in these patients. (C) 2003 Cancer Research UK.