Pelvic and abdominal recurrences in Stage I/II endometrial carcinoma are associated with poor outcomes, yet prognostic factors for survival after recurrence are not well-described. Herein we identify patients with pelvic or abdominal recurrence after surgery for Stage I/II endometrial carcinoma and describe symptoms at presentation, prognostic factors, and salvage treatment toxicity.

This is a retrospective cohort of 20 consecutively treated patients with recurrence after treatment for Stage I/II endometrial carcinoma followed by our Institution’s Radiation Oncology Department from 1998-2015.

The median time to pelvic or abdominal recurrence was 18.1 months (range, 4.2-59.6 months), with 50% of recurrences at extra-nodal locations. Two year progression-free survival (PFS) was 44% and 2 year overall survival (OS) was 82%. Salvage treatments varied widely, including chemotherapy and radiation therapy (RT) (7), surgery and RT (3), and surgery, chemotherapy, and RT (3). On univariate analysis of PFS, symptoms at recurrence (p=0.04) and extra-nodal recurrences (p<0.01) were found to be statistically significant negative prognosticators for PFS. On univariate analysis of OS, increasing age at recurrence and presence of symptoms were found to have a trend toward statistically significant association with negative OS outcomes (p=0.08 and p=0.10, respectively).

Our study demonstrates long-term survival for pelvic or abdominal recurrences is possible with curative salvage therapy. The presence of symptoms is a negative prognostic factor in treatment outcome and imaging may be effective for diagnosis in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Larger studies need to be performed to confirm these findings.