Search

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathologic features and the outcome in patients with pure and mixed type uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC), and to compare these parameters with those observed in patients with moderately and poorly differentiated endometrioid endometrial carcinoma (MPD-EEC)., Methods: The charts of 34 patients with UPSC and 30 patients with MPD-EEC, operated on between January 1995 and December 2000, were retrospectively reviewed. The UPSC group included ten cases of pure and 24 cases of mixed type UPSC (admixed with endometrioid component). All patients had undergone full surgical staging. Clinical features, surgicopathological findings, recurrence rate and recurrence-free interval were compared between the study groups., Results: Significantly more patients with MPD-EEC than with UPSC were operated on in FIGO stage I and II (p = 0.001). MPD-EEC patients were significantly older and more obese (p = 0.03 and p = 0.01, respectively) as compared with the UPSC patients. Significantly more patients with MPD-EEC presented with postmenopausal bleeding (p = 0.02), had a second primary cancer in the past (p = 0.03) and had a first degree relative with history of malignant disease (p = 0.0001). Conversely, the rates of positive abdominal cytology and cervical involvement were significantly higher in the group of UPSC (p = 0.02 and p = 0.02, respectively). Significantly more patients with UPSC were treated with adjuvant therapy (p = 0.01). No significant difference between the two study groups was observed comparing the recurrence rate, the recurrence free interval and the 3-year survival. There was also no significant difference between the pure and the mixed type UPSC, considering the clinical features and the follow-up data., Conclusion: The current study presented no significant difference in the outcome of MPD-EEC as compared with the pure and the mixed type UPSC, yet prospective studies are needed to evaluate the role of adjuvant therapy in each study group.

Eighteen patients with primary papillary serous carcinoma of the peritoneum (PPSCP) were treated at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the University of Graz between 1980 and 1996. Primary tumours from other sites, particularly the pancreas and ovary, had been excluded. Because of extensive spread of the disease particularly in the upper abdomen, seven of the 18 patients (38%) underwent exploratory laparotomy only. Median overall survival time was 10 months (range 1-28+). This figure reflects the extent of spread of the disease at diagnosis on one hand, and that optimal cytoreductive surgery (residual disease < or = 2 cm) was possible only in six of the 18 patients (33%) on the other. The six patients with optimal cytoreduction had a better survival (range 4+ to 28+ months) than those who underwent less radical surgery. These data indicate, that, similar to primary ovarian cancer, the amount of residual disease may be an important prognostic factor in patients with PPSCP.

Between 1982 and 1992, 129 patients with malignant epithelial ovarian tumors were reviewed with identification of 10 patients having surface papillary serous carcinoma of the ovary and one having peritoneal papillary carcinoma. The gross operative specimens, histopathologic condition, and treatment records were reviewed. All patients had disease involving the omentum, and the abdominal and pelvic peritoneum, and they all corresponded to stage III, according to FIGO. The median age at presentation was 58-years (age range, 43 to 73 years). All patients had a total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and all received chemotherapy. The median survival time for all patients was 15 months. Three patients are alive 3 to 4 years after the initial diagnosis. In conclusion, surface serous ovarian cancers and peritoneal papillary serous cancers have common histologic appearance and the same responsiveness to surgical therapy and to chemotherapy and should be treated similarly.

Three cases of serous surface papillary carcinoma of the abdominopelvic peritoneum are presented. All of the patients were subjected to a relatively homogeneous management consisting of primary surgery and cisplatin based chemotherapy regimen. The second look procedures of two patients were found to be negative. Although these tumors are known to have a poor prognosis, aggressive surgery and cisplatin based chemotherapy seem to have promising results.