The role of surgery in recurrent endometrial cancer

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Endometrial cancer is a common gynecologic malignancy in the United States, and the recurrence rate depends on the disease stage at diagnosis. Recurrence can affect several areas and follow different patterns.

Areas covered: The role of surgery at the time of recurrence is not clearly defined. In this review, we fully describe the current evidence available. In particular, we describe how surgical treatment might be recommended for 1) vaginal or pelvic recurrences; 2) retroperitoneal or localized intra-abdominal recurrence, when a maximal cytoreductive effort is more likely to be successful; or 3) isolated distant recurrences when microscopically tumor-free margins can be achieved.

Expert commentary: Cases should be evaluated individually, considering factors such as comorbidities, risks of intervention, and impact of treatment on quality of life.

KEYWORDS:

• Endometrial neoplasm
• intraoperative radiation therapy
• metastases
• quality of life
• secondary cytoreductive surgery

Acknowledgment

Francesco Multinu is a research fellow supported by the University of Cagliari, Italy.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.