A comparison of clinico-pathologic characteristics of patients with serous and clear cell carcinoma of the uterus

OBJECTIVE Serous carcinoma and clear cell carcinomas account for 10% and 3% of endometrial cancers but are responsible for 39% and 8% of cancer deaths, respectively. In this study, we aimed to compare serous carcinoma and clear cell carcinoma regarding the surgico-pathologic and clinical characteristics, and survival, and to detect factors that affected recurrence and survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS We retrospectively analyzed patients with clear cell and serous endometrial cancer who underwent surgery between January 1993 and December 2013 in our clinic. We used Kaplan-Meier estimator to analyze survival. RESULTS The tumor type in 49 patients was clear cell carcinomas and was serous uterine carcinoma in 51 patients. Advanced stage (stage III and IV) disease was present in 42% of the patients in the clear cell group, whereas this rate was 62% in the serous group (p=0.044). Lymph node metastasis was detected in 37% of the patients with clear cell carcinomas and 51% of the patients with serous carcinoma (p=0.17). The adjuvant therapies used did not differ significantly between the groups (p=0.192). The groups had similar recurrence patterns. Five-year progression-free survival and the 5-year overall survival were 60.6% and 85.8%, 45.5% and 67.8% in the patients with clear cell carcinomas and serous tumor, respectively. CONCLUSION With the exception that more advanced stages were observed in patients with serous carcinoma endometrial cancers at presentation, the surgico-pathologic features, recurrence rates and patterns, and survival rates did not differ significantly between the groups with clear cell carcinoma and serous carcinoma endometrial cancers.