COMPARISON OF THE CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PREMENOPAUSAL AND POSTMENOPAUSAL ENDOMETRIAL CARCINOMAS - ANALYSIS OF ENDOCRINOLOGICALLY EVALUATED CASES

A study was performed to clarify the clinicopathological differences b etween premenopausal endometrial carcinoma, which occurs during the re productive period, and postmenopausal endometrial carcinoma. We analyz ed 76 patients with endometrial carcinoma treated in our department be tween January 1984 and July 1994. Using classification criteria which included menstrual history and results of endocrinological tests (seru m FSH, LH and estradiol), 50 (65.7%) patients were defined as postmeno pausal, 16 (21.0%) as premenopausal, and 10 (13.1%) as unclassified. F rom an epidemiologic viewpoint, the incidence of nulliparity was highe r in the premenopausal (37.5%) than in the postmenopausal (10%) patien ts. However, no significant differences were observed between the two groups with regard to the incidence of obesity, diabetes and hypertens ion. The results of our clinicopathological study revealed that premen opausal endometrial carcinoma had a significantly higher incidence of well differentiated (63.1%) and relatively less advanced (31.1% of cas es at stages III and IV) cancers than postmenopausal carcinoma (38% an d 46%, respectively). These features were positively correlated with p rognosis, i.e., premenopausal patients in general had a much better pr ognosis than postmenopausal patients.