Endometrial adenocarcinoma - Lack of correlation between treatment delay and tumor stage

Abstract

Objective. The objective was to examine why a proportion of patients with endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EMC) presents with advanced stage disease and whether the duration of bleeding prior to hysterectomy (treatment delay) is predictive of stage. Study design. A retrospective clinicopathologic study of 182 patients treated for EMC at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City between 1988 and 1996 was performed. Results. Ninety percent of patients with EMC presented with abnormal uterine bleeding. The median time interval from onset of bleeding to biopsy diagnosis was 2.5 months (range, 2 weeks to 60 months) and 3 weeks from biopsy to hysterectomy. No correlation between the duration of symptoms and tumor stage was found (P = 0.87). There was, however, significant correlation between poor tumor differentiation and the advanced stage of the disease (P = 0.0001). Conclusions. Stage at presentation in patients with EMC correlates with tumor differentiation but not with time interval from bleeding to definitive therapy.