Management for elderly women with advanced-stage, high-grade endometrial cancer

OBJECTIVE: To examine the treatment and survival of elderly women diagnosed with advanced-stage, high-grade endometrial cancer. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of women diagnosed between 2003 and 2011 with advanced-stage, high-grade endometrial cancers (grade 3 adenocarcinoma, carcinosarcoma, clear-cell carcinoma, and uterine serous carcinoma) using the National Cancer Database. Women were stratified by age: younger than 55, 55-64, 65-74, 75-84, and 85 years old or older. Multivariate logistic regression models and Cox proportional hazards survival methods for all-cause mortality were used for analyses. RESULTS: Twenty thousand four hundred sixty-eight patients were included, 14.9% younger than 55 years, 30.9% 55-64 years, 31.1% 65-74 years, 18.8% 75-84 years, and 4.3% 85 years old or older. Patients younger than 55 years had surgery more frequently compared with patients 75-84 years (97.2% compared with 95.8%; P<.001) and 85 years or older (97.2% compared with 94.8%; P<.001) and a higher rate of lymph node dissection (78.7% compared with 70.5%; P<.001 and 78.7% compared with 59.5%; P<.001, respectively). Women younger than 55 years old were more likely to receive chemotherapy compared with those 75-84 years (63.9% compared with 42.2%; P<.001) and 85 years old or older (63.9% compared with 22%; P<.001). After adjusting for prognostic factors, women ages 75-84 and 85 years or older were less likely to have received chemotherapy compared with women younger than 55 years (odds ratio [OR] 0.34, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.29-0.38 and OR 0.12, 95% CI 0.10-0.14). The same was true with surgery (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.45-0.88 and OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.30-0.70) and radiotherapy (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.53-0.70 and OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.37-0.56). The Cox regression model showed that in women with stage III disease, women 75-84 years had a twofold higher risk of death (hazard ratio [HR] 2.38, 95% CI 2.14-2.65) and those 85 years or older had a threefold higher risk (HR 3.16, 95% CI 2.76-3.61) compared with patients younger than 55 years. Patients with stage IV and age 75-84 years had a 24% increased risk of death (HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.11-1.40) and those 85 years or older had a 52% increased risk (HR 1.52, 95% CI 1.29-1.79). CONCLUSION: Elderly women with high-grade endometrial cancer are less likely to be treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation.