Clinical and pathological studies were performed on 56 patients with endometrial cancer who were diagnosed and treated in the Department of OB/GY of Seoul National University Hospital from Jan. 1975 to Dec. 1986.
The results were as follows;
1) Of 56 cases, 17 (30.4%) were in stage Ia, 22 (39.3%) in stage Ib, 5 (8.9%) in stage Ⅱ, 10 (17.9%) in stage Ⅲ, and 2 (3.6%) in stage IV according to FIGO classification.
2) The average age was 54.2 and the range 28 to 73.
3) Forty two (75.0%) patients were postmenopausal and the average menopausal age was 49.8 years.
4) All cases except two were symptomatic and in 51 (91.9%) cases, abnormal vaginal bleeding was noted as a chief complaint.
5) The major complications were obesity (37.5%), hypertension (48.2%), diabetes mellitus (16.1%), and infertility (23.2%). In 5 cases (8.9%), obesity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus were complicated at the same time.
6) When the depth of the invasion was classified into 3 grades, less than 1/3 of the muscular layer, between 1/3 and 2/3, and over 2/3 in 52 cases examined, they were observed in 15 (28.8%), 9 (17.3%), 14 cases (26.9%) respectively. And in 14 cases (26.9%), there was no myometrial invasion and the cancer was limited within the endometrium.
7) There were 2 cases (11.1%) with lymph node involvement in 18 cases examined. In one case, the depth of myometrial invasion was less than 1/3, and in another case, the depth of invasion was over 2/3. And the histological grade of these cases was G2 in both.
8) The three year survival rate was 69.7% (23/33) for all cases. The clinical stage and age of the patients may be correlated with the prognosis of the endometrial cancer (p<0.05).
9) The three year survival rate for the group treated by surgical treatment with pelvic lymph node dissection was 100% (9/9) which was significantly higher than the 68.2% (15/22) of the group treated by simple hysterectomy (p<0.05).
We can think that the effort to diagnose the endometrial cancers in the earlier clinical stages and the surgical treatment with pelvic lymph node dissection may improve the prognosis of the endometrial cancer.
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