Clinico-pathological aspects of vanishing endometrial cancer

Abstract

Aims: To assess the prevalence, pre-operative findings, and clinical outcomes of endometrial cancer (EMC) patients who had vanishing cancer. Methods: Patients who had pre-operative tissue diagnosis of EMC, and had surgical treatment including hysterectomy in the institution between 1995 and 2015 were identified. The patients who had no residual carcinoma in all pathologic specimens including the uterus were included. Pre-and post-operative clinico-pathological data were collected. Clinical outcomes including recurrence and survival of the patients were studied. Results: Among 422 patients who had tissue diagnosis of endometrial cancer, twenty patients had no residual cancer in the hysterectomy specimens. Three patients who had pre-operative radiation therapy or had evidence of endometrial cancer outside the uterus were excluded, so 17 patients (3.8%) were diagnosed as having vanishing cancer. One of the 17 patients, who had pre-operative endometrioid endometrial cancer, had adjuvant chemotherapy for synchronous serous carcinoma of fallopian tube. From a follow-up period of 62.7 months (range, 6.8-184.4 months), no recurrences were found. Only 2 patients were dead of other diseases. Conclusion: Patients with vanishing endometrial cancer had excellent prognosis. Adjuvant treatment may not be needed. However, periodic surveillance was still recommended because data were derived from only small number of patients.