Improving locoregional outcome in high-intermediate-risk and high-risk stage I endometrial cancer with surgical staging followed by brachytherapy

PURPOSE: This study aims to assess the locoregional efficacy of postoperative vaginal brachytherapy (VBT) alone in patients undergoing surgical staging for early-stage high-intermediate-risk (HIR) and high-risk (HR) endometrial cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and four patients with early-stage HIR and HR endometrial cancer who underwent surgical staging were treated with adjuvant VBT alone. The patients with stage Ib, grade I–III, stage Ia, grade III, lower uterine segment involvement, and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) were included to study. RESULTS: The 5- and 10-year overall survival (OS) rates were 87% and 76%, respectively. The 5- and 10-year DFS rates were 86% and 86%, respectively. Among the patients, 92% had endometrioid adenocarcinoma, 2% had undifferentiated carcinoma, 2% had serous papillary carcinoma, and 4% had clear-cell carcinoma. Of the patients, 63% had stage Ib disease, while 37% had stage Ia disease. None of the patients had vaginal or pelvic lymph node recurrence, whereas two had para-aortic lymph node metastasis, one had surgical scar recurrence, one had para-aortic lymph node and brain metastasis, and one had lung metastasis. The presence of lymphatic invasion was found to be a statistically significant prognostic factor for increased distant metastasis rates (p = 0.020). Lymphatic invasion was also regarded as an independent prognostic factor for metastasis-free survival (p = 0.044). CONCLUSION: Our study results suggest that postoperative VBT alone is an effective and safe treatment modality with low complication in patients undergoing surgical staging for HIR and HR endometrial cancer.