PROFILE OF WOMEN 45 YEARS OF AGE AND YOUNGER WITH ENDOMETRIAL CANCER

Objective: The clinical characteristics and outcomes of endometrial ca ncer patients 45 years of age and younger were compared with those of patients older than 45 years of age. Methods: We performed a cross-sec tional study of 301 consecutive endometrial cancer patients referred t o our center from 1989 to 1994. Of the 289 patients eligible for study , 40 were 45 years of age or younger (group A) and 249 were older than 45 years of age (group B). Results: The majority of patients in both groups presented with stage I disease. Of the women with stage I disea se, patients in group A were more likely than those in group B to have low-grade disease localized to the endometrium (P < .001; relative pr evalence 3.39; confidence interval [CI] 1.88, 6.12). However, the dist ribution of stages I to IV overall was the same for the two groups (P = .269). Although univariate analysis revealed that 11% of the patient s in group A and 2% in group B had synchronous ovarian malignancies (P = .007; relative prevalence 5.42; CI 1.39, 21.14), multivariate logis tic regression found that nulliparity, not age, was an independent ris k factor for synchronous ovarian malignancy (P = .017; relative preval ence 6.15; CI 1.52, 25.61). There were no statistically significant di fferences by age in the prevalence of high-risk endometrial histology (serous and clear cell carcinoma) or in survival. Conclusion: The over all distribution of tumor stage and survival were the same for the you nger and older women; this finding contradicts previous reports that s uggest that young women with endometrial cancer are at lower risk. Add itionally, nulliparity, which occurs with a higher prevalence in young er women who develop endometrial cancer, is associated statistically w ith the development of synchronous ovarian malignancies. (C) 1998 by T he American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.