A rare case of endometrial cancer, developed as a result of adjuvant radiotherapy for cervical cancer

Radiotherapy is the mainstay of the management of women with advanced cervical cancer. Combination with chemotherapy additionally prolongs survival of the patients. Long-term radiation-induced complications such as secondary malignancies occur long years after the initial treatment and are difficult to manage. We presented the case of a 72-year-old patient, submitted to surgery in our clinic for a high-grade endometrial cancer, stage FIGO IIIA (pT3ApN0M0). It occurred 3 years after definitive radiotherapy for cervical cancer FIGO stage IIB. As the endometrial cancer was not present at the time of diagnosis of the cervical, we consider it, despite the relatively short interval time, as a secondary radiation-induced endometrial cancer. Radiation-induced secondary malignancies in the pelvis are characterized with shorter survival rates, worse prognosis, higher stage at diagnosis and poor histological features such as grade or histologic subtype as compared to primary ones.