[Clinical studies of 145 cases of endometrial carcinoma--analysis of prognostic factors, especially pathological types]

One hundred and forty-five patients with confirmed endometrial carcinoma treated at Kumamoto University Hospital were studied from the clinicopathological point of view. As risk factors, the incidence of high age, postmenopause, atypical genital bleeding, sterility, nulliparity, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and obesity was showed to be high. These factors may be expected to assist in screening for early diagnosis by using each factor or combination of factors. As prognostic factors, we examined the relationship between stage, depth of myometrial invasion, histological grade, histological type and survival rate. The stage was shown to be a most important predicator of survival. The depth of myometrial invasion and the histological grade closely correlated with the stage. The relationship between the histological subtype, especially papillary serous carcinoma (PSC) and prognosis, was investigated in our series of studies. PSC found in an incidence of 9.4% had a relatively poor prognosis compared with endometrioid carcinoma. Its 5-year survival rate was only 30%. Because PSC has a potential for aggressive invasion and rapid metastasis as compared to endometrioid carcinoma, careful histological examination and aggressive treatment are warranted.