Endometrial cancer: is surgical staging necessary?

Surgical staging has become the standard of care for the treatment of women with endometrial cancer. Recent scientific publications have confirmed the relative safety of this procedure when performed by subspecialty trained s urgeons and have provided compelling evidence that the routine use of posto perative teletherapy is not cost effective, nor does it offer improved surv ival. New questions as to the safety and effectiveness of a laparoscopic st aging approach have been answered in the affirmative. Although the extent o f staging has not yet been defined, growing evidence suggests that preopera tive studies and intraoperative clinical opinion cannot be consistently cou nted on to be predictive of postoperative histologic status. Therefore, all patients should be considered at risk and should undergo an operation in a clinical situation that offers the immediate availability of retroperitone al staging or cytoreductive surgery if necessary. Curr Opin Oncol 2001, 13: 408-412 (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.