Relationship between peritoneal cytology and prognosis in endometrial carcinomas

From 1971 to 1985, peritoneal cytologic examination was performed at the time of operation in 235 previously untreated patients with endometrial carcinoma. The relationship between the cytologic findings and prognoses by stage was investigated. The results were as follows: 1. In the peritoneal cytologic examination, 44 (18.7%) out of 235 cases were positive for cancer cells in all stages, 25 (14.5%) out of 173 cases in stage I, 7 (21.2%) out of 33 cases in stage II, and 8 (32.0%) out of 25 cases in stage III. 2. Among the 20 cases of stage I endometrial carcinoma that had no macroscopic metastasis and had positive peritoneal cytologic findings for cancer cells, 5- and 10-year cumulative survival rates were 94.7 and 94.7%, against 92.7% and 90.9% in cases with negative peritoneal cytology respectively. The recurrence rate in the same stage was 12.0% for positive cases, against 9.5% for negative cases. No significant differences between positive and negative cases were found. 3. In stages II and III, the difference between the survival rates for 9 cases which have positive peritoneal cytology without macroscopic peritoneal metastasis and 47 cases with negative peritoneal cytology were not statistically significant. 4. In endometrial carcinoma without macroscopic peritoneal metastasis, the appearance of cancer cells in peritoneal cytologic examination is not correlated with the prognosis.