Carcinoma of the fallopian tube: A clinicopathological study of 105 cases with observations on staging and prognostic factors

One hundred five cases of carcinoma of the fallopian tube were subjected to a clinicopathological study to investigate the validity of various prognos tic factors. A higher stage of tumor, an absence of closure of the fimbriat ed end of the tube, and an age of 66 years or older were the major predicto rs of a shorter length of recurrence-free postoperative survival in a univa riate analysis. In a multivariate analysis, however, stage was a highly sig nificant prognostic factor, absence of fimbriated-end closure, marginally s ignificant, and older age, not significant. Within Stage I cases the presen ce or absence of invasion of the tubal wall, the depth of invasion when pre sent, and the location of the tumor within the tube (fimbrial or nonfimbria l) appeared to be prognostically important. These findings strongly suggest that the FIGO staging system should be expanded to permit staging of nonin vasive tubal carcinomas and fimbrial carcinomas, which cannot be staged acc ording to the current system, and that depth of invasion of the tubal wall merits future investigation as an additional prognostic factor. (C) 1999 Ac ademic Press.