The impact of adjuvant radiation therapy on survival in women with uterine carcinosarcoma

Background and purposeUterine carcinosarcoma is an aggressive neoplasm and the benefit of adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) is unclear. This retrospective study analyzes the influence of RT on survival using a large population database.Materials and methodsData were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program of the US National Cancer Institute. Women with uterine carcinosarcoma who underwent primary surgery were eligible. Survival rates and multivariate analyses were performed by standard methods.ResultsOf the 2461 women in the analysis, 890 received adjuvant RT. Five-year rates of overall survival were 41.5% and 33.2% (P < 0.001) and uterine-specific survival were 56.0% and 50.8% (P = 0.005), for women receiving RT compared to those who did not. Women with stages I–III disease experienced a benefit in overall survival (HR 0.87, P = 0.03) while women with stage IV disease experienced benefits in overall (HR 0.63, P < 0.001) and uterine-specific survival (HR 0.63, P = 0.004) with RT.ConclusionsRT predicted for improved overall and disease specific survival in women with uterine carcinosarcoma within the SEER database. The benefit in disease specific survival was restricted to stage IV disease. These benefits may indicate a role for adjuvant RT in future prospective trials in the treatment of uterine carcinosarcoma.