likely survival time

[hope123456789]

what is likely survival time for a stage 4 high grade endometrial cancer with and without chemo?
thanks

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  As I have stated in my earlier post, untreated stage 4 endometrial cancer has a five year survival rate between less than 5% to 25%.  I suppose that the more aggressive histologic subtypes of stage 4 endometrial cancer will tend to have a survival rate on the lower end of the range I have given.  A study on the efficacy of Taxol/Carboplatinum regimen in advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer (see http://jco.ascopubs.org/cgi/content/full/19/20/4048) found a 63% 3-year survival rate when this regimen was used.

[hope123456789]

Hello,
Thanks for your reply.They say i have poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of endometrium which has spread to my bowels(peritoneal carcinomatosis).its a very virulent tumor.They want to start chemo with taxol/carboplatinum every 3 weeks(6 cycles).What do you think?is it really worth going through the chemo?what is the survival of this type of cancer with chemo and without chemo.
Thanks again

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  Various sources estimate the five year survival rate for untreated stage 4 endometrial cancer from less than 5% to 25%.  The study evaluating the combination chemotherapy doxorubicin plus cisplatin for advanced stage endometrial cancer (see http://jco.ascopubs.org/cgi/content/full/24/1/36) yielded a five year survival of 50% for those treated with this drug combination.  However, the women treated in that study was a mixed group who had stage 3 and stage 4 disease.  The addition of the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel to the doxorubicin-cisplatin combination in advanced endometrial cancer results in even better median survival (see http://jco.ascopubs.org/cgi/content/full/22/11/2159#F2).