Ovarian endometrioid carcinoma and clear cell carcinoma: A 21-year retrospective study

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the clinical characteristics of Chinese patients with ovarian endometrioid carcinoma (EC) and clear cell carcinoma (CCC) and to assess the impact of concurrent endometriosis on this group. METHODS: The present study reviewed the medical records of patients who received initial treatment and a postoperative pathological diagnosis of EC or CCC at our center in China between 1998 and 2018. RESULTS: Of 211 patients, 73 had pure EC, and 91 had pure CCC, and the remaining 47 had mixed cancer. The proportion of EC and CCC remained stable over past 21 years. The proportion of EC declined with aging and the age of EC onset to incline to the young. And the age of CCC onset had two peaks, namely, 36 and 77 years. After review by the pathologist, the number of endometriosis cases found in the pathological section of the analysis increased to 114, accounting for 54% of patients. As the stage progressed, the appearance of endometriosis became increasingly scarce in pathological sections(p = 0.001). Compared with CCC, EC had a higher frequency of concurrent endometrial cancer (independent endometrial lesions) and estrogen and progesterone receptor expression(p = 0.000). And more patients were in premenopausal state in EC group(p = 0.040). In the pure group, multivariate analysis showed that correlation existed between relevance to endometriosis and worse outcomes(p = 0.041). In patients with mixed cancer, mixed endometrioid histology was associated with better survival than other subtypes, even with stage III or poorly differentiated tumors(p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: CCC and EC which are common in ovarian cancer patients who have associated with endometriosis have distinct clinicopathological characteristics. Attention should be paid to ovarian cancer patients with a history of endometriosis and those with concurrent endometriosis in pathological sections. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13048-021-00804-1.