Prognostic significance of heterologous component in carcinosarcoma of the gynecologic organs: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine the histologic presence of heterologous component as a prognostic factor in gynecologic carcinosarcoma through a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase were searched for publications. Studies that evaluated survival effect of sarcomatous component based on histology in human ovarian or uterine carcinosarcoma were included. Two authors independently reviewed the references based on eligibility criteria and extracted the data including primary tumor site, survival outcome, type of survival outcome, and proportion of each sarcomatous differentiation. The quality of each eligible study was assessed with Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Meta-analysis was conducted using a random-effects model to estimate hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of survival outcome for carcinosarcoma with or without heterologous component. RESULTS: Eight studies including 1,594 patients were identified. Overall proportion of carcinosarcoma with heterologous component was 43.3%. Presence of heterologous component was associated with worse overall survival (HR=1.81; 95% CI=1.15–2.85) but not with pooled recurrence-free survival and disease-free survival (HR=1.79; 95% CI=0.85–3.77). Removing multivariate analysis studies, early-stage studies, ovarian tumor study, or studies with large number of patient samples did not affect the significance between heterologous component and overall survival. CONCLUSION: Gynecologic carcinosarcoma is histologically a biphasic tumor which comprise of epithelial and mesenchymal components. Our study emphasizes pathologic evaluation of heterologous component as a prognostic factor in gynecologic carcinosarcoma when all stages were considered. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO Identifier: CRD42022298871