Endometrial Carcinoma in Women Aged 45 and Younger: Clinico-pathological Features

Abstract

Objective: 1)To study the clinical-pathological profile of endometrial carcinoma patients age 45 years and younger. 2) To determine if there is any difference in clinical-pathological features between these patients and patients older than 45 years of age. Method: Retrospective study of 102 endometrial carcinoma patients diagnosed in Tuen Mun Hospital from 1997 to 2001. Of the 99 patients eligible for study, 24 were age 45 or younger (group A) and 75 were older than 45 years of age (group B) Results: Group A patients were more often nulliparous (p<0.001). Anaemia at presentation were more common in group A (p=0.007). There was no significance difference in body weight, history of diabetes mellitus, polycystic ovary disease and use of hormone. Concerning pathological features, group B patients have higher percentage of advanced stage disease, high grade tumor and deep myometrial invasion than group A patients. However, these differences were not statistically significant. The percentage of regional lymph node involvement, lymphovascular invasion and synchronous ovarian tumor were similar in both groups. Conclusion: Endometrial carcinoma patients age 45 and younger were more often nulliparous and anaemic. Higher percentage of patients in the younger group presented with early stage, low grade disease with less myometrial invasion. However, this did not reach statistical significance. The distributions of most pathological features were similar in both groups. This suggested that the prognosis of young endometrial carcinoma patients would be similar to those aged more than 45, in contrast to what traditionally believed.