Prediction of cervical infiltration in Stage II endometrial cancer by different preoperative evaluation techniques (D&C, US, CT, MRI).

Abstract

We can conclude that "overtreatment" seems to have occurred in 19 patients, whose cervical infiltration by endometrial cancer could not be proved by pathological staging. It can also be assessed that understaging took place in two cases, which can be explained by two reasons; we did not make use of preoperative imaging techniques since US was applied in six patients, CT in 16 and the most accurate, MRI, on three patients only. The other possible reason, which can point out the bad efficacy of the imaging techniques as well, could be that a major part of the patients received preoperative AL treatment, which could also have influenced the cervical progression. This is possible, but has not been proved. The difference in the number of cervical infiltrations in the group of patients who received preoperative radiotherapy and in the group where they did not, is not significant (p = 0.9742), and infiltration of the endometrium was present in all cases. In the future, proper selection of imaging modalities can improve the staging of gynaecological disorders and preclude unnecessary procedures. In endometrial cancer cases US, especially with the use of TVUS, is often considered to be the primary imaging approach. However, in patients where ultrasound is suboptimal, where there is a large tumour present or the result of imaging studies will directly influence the choice of therapy and guide therapy planning then the higher accuracy of MRI warrants its use. CT is of use in the later stages of disease; differentiation between Stage I and II is difficult and CT is limited in the assessment of myometrial invasion.