Background: Deep endometriosis (DE) is a special form of endometriosis, one of the most common benign diseases in gynecology. In the specific case of DE, ectopic endometrium can be found not only in peritoneal but also in deeper tissue layers or even as parenchymal organ infiltration. Symptoms include dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, dyschezia, and dysuria, as well as asymptomatic hydronephrosis or other organ dysfunctions. Due to a pathogenesis of the disease that has not been conclusively clarified to date, no causal therapy exists, which is why surgical resection of DE is still the gold standard for symptomatic cases. Methods: This article retrospectively describes the challenges in diagnosis and surgical treatment of DE at a German Level III Endometriosis Center, with a focus on diagnosis and surgical treatment, as well as the analysis of perioperative and postoperative complications. Results: The surgical treatment of DE is performed in most cases by minimally invasive laparoscopy (94.1%), whereas complex procedures such as ureterolysis, adhesiolysis, or preparation of the rectovaginal septum are considered standard procedures as well. The complexity of the procedures is further underlined by a high need for interdisciplinary operations (28%). Despite high complexity, severe postoperative complications occurred in only 3.1% of surgeries, with the complication rate being significantly higher whenever bowel surgery was necessary for DE resection. Conclusions: Our results emphasize the complexity and interdisciplinary nature of the disease. Therefore, treatment should preferably take place at an endometriosis center of the highest level with experienced, well-coordinated teams.
OBJECTIVES:Optimal management of patients with stage IA p53abn endometrial cancer without myoinvasion, classified as intermediate risk in the 2020 European Society of Gynaecological Oncology, European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, and European Society of Pathology (ESGO-ESTRO-ESP) guidelines, and the 2022 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) guidelines, is currently unclear. Practice varies from surgery alone to adjuvant radiation±chemotherapy. Our aim was to assess the risk of disease recurrence in patients with stage IA p53abn endometrial cancer without myoinvasion compared with stage IA with myoinvasion (<50%). METHODS:Stage IA p53abn endometrial cancers were identified from retrospective cohorts. Cases were segregated into stage IA with no myoinvasion, including (1) tumor restricted to a polyp, (2) residual endometrial tumor, and (3) no residual tumor in hysterectomy specimen, versus stage IA p53abn with myoinvasion (<50%), with treatment and outcomes assessed. RESULTS:There were 65 stage IA p53abn endometrial cancers with no myoinvasion (22 polyp confined, 38 residual endometrial tumor, 2 no residual in hysterectomy specimen, 3 not specified) and 97 with myoinvasion. There was no difference in survival outcomes in patients with stage IA without myoinvasion (16% of patients recurred, 19% if there was residual endometrial disease) compared with stage IA with myoinvasion (17%). The risk of recurrence was lowest in patients with stage IA p53abn endometrial cancer without myoinvasion treated with chemotherapy±radiation (8%). Most recurrences in patients with stage IA without myoinvasion were distant (89%), with no isolated vaginal vault recurrences, and all except one distant recurrence occurred in patients who had not received adjuvant chemotherapy. CONCLUSION:The recurrence rate in patients with stage IA p53abn endometrial cancer without myoinvasion was 16%, highest in the setting of residual endometrial disease (19%), and exceeding the threshold where adjuvant therapy is often considered. The high frequency of distant recurrences observed may support chemotherapy as part of the treatment regimen.
Purpose The goal of breast-conserving surgery is to achieve negative tumor margins, since insufficient marginal distance is associated with more local and distant recurrences. This study investigates whether IOUS (intraoperative ultrasound) can reduce the re-resection rate compared to standard breast surgery, regardless of tumor biology and focality. Materials and Methods The present study is a monocentric, prospective, randomized, and non-blinded parallel group study conducted between 7/2015 and 2/2018. Patients with sonographically visible breast cancer were randomized into two study arms: 1) breast-conserving surgery with IOUS; 2) conventional arm. Results 364 patients were included in the study and underwent surgery. Tumor biology, size, and focality were equally distributed in both groups (p = 0.497). The study arms did not differ significantly in the proportion of preoperative wire markings (p= 0.084), specimen weight (p = 0.225), surgery duration (p = 0.849), and the proportion of shavings taken intraoperatively (p = 0.903). Positive margins were present in 16.6% of the cases in the IOUS arm and in 20.8% in the conventional arm (p = 0.347). Re-operation was necessary after intraoperative shavings in 14.4% of cases in the US arm and in 21.3% in the conventional arm (p = 0.100). Conclusion Although the present study showed a clear difference in the rate of positive tumor margins with IOUS compared to conventional breast surgery without IOUS, this was not statistically significant in contrast to the current literature. This could be due to the high expertise of the breast surgeons, the precise wire marking, or the fact that the IOUS technique was not standardized.
Background: Until now, limited clinical significance had been reported for disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) in gynecologic malignancies. DTCs were previously reported not to be associated with established risk factors, L1CAM immunoreactivity, and outcome in endometrial carcinoma (EC). This study’s primary objective was to investigate potential correlations of DTCs in the bone marrow (BM) of EC patients with disease-related survival, and a secondary objective was to evaluate associations between molecular classification of EC and DTCs. Methods: Patients treated for primary EC at Tuebingen University women’s hospital between 2003 and 2016 were identified. A total of 402 patients with a complete set of BM cytology, molecular, and clinical data were evaluable. Results: DTC occurrence was distributed equally among all four molecular groups (p = 0.651). DTC positivity was associated with a less favorable disease-free survival (HR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.03–3.36, p = 0.036) and progression-free survival (HR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.01–3.44, p = 0.045). Presence of DTCs was associated with a higher frequency of distant disease recurrence (p = 0.017). Conclusions: In line with our previous findings, tumor cell dissemination is not associated with molecular features in our large cohort of primary EC patients. Since DTCs seem to be associated with survival and location of disease recurrence, further studies are needed to decisively define their role in EC survival.
Background: Endometriosis is known to be a common chronic disease that often affects the quality of life of patients. Especially for deep endometriosis (DE), the most challenging form of the disease, surgery remains an important component of treatment. However, long-term outcomes after surgery are poorly studied. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the postoperative clinical course of women with DE who underwent surgery, particularly with regard to pain relief, fertility, and re-operations. Methods: Thus, women who underwent surgical treatment for DE between 2005 and 2015 were included in this retrospective questionnaire-based analysis. Results: A total of 87.0% of the patients who underwent surgery for pain reported a postoperative relief of their complaints. Moreover, 44.6% even stated that they were free of pain at the time of the questionnaire. Patients who underwent surgery for infertility and tried to become pregnant postoperatively gave birth to a child in 45.9% of cases. Approximately one-third of the patients had to undergo another surgery because of endometriosis-related symptoms. The main reasons for re-operation were pain and infertility. The median time to re-operation was 2.1 years. Conclusions: In this extraordinarily long follow-up with a remarkable response rate, we show that surgical treatment of DE leads to pain relief and improved fertility in most cases. However, the risk of recurrence and the need for re-operation remains remarkable.
OBJECTIVES:We have previously shown that DNA based, single test molecular classification by next generation sequencing (NGS) (Proactive Molecular risk classifier for Endometrial cancer (ProMisE) NGS) is highly concordant with the original ProMisE classifier and maintains prognostic value in endometrial cancer. Our aim was to validate ProMisE NGS in an independent cohort and assess the performance of ProMisE NGS in real world clinical practice to address if there were any practical challenges or learning points for implementation. METHODS:We evaluated DNA extracted from an external research cohort of 211 endometrial cancer cases diagnosed in 2016 from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, across seven European centers, comparing standard molecular classification (NGS for POLE status, immunohistochemistry for mismatch repair and p53) with ProMisE NGS (NGS for POLE and TP53, microsatellite instability assay) for concordance metrics and Kaplan-Meier survival statistics across molecular subtypes. In parallel, we assessed all patients who had undergone a new NGS based molecular classification test (n=334) comparing molecular subtype assignment with the original ProMisE classifier. RESULTS:A total of 545 endometrial cancers were compared. Prognostic differences in progression free, disease specific, and overall survival between the four molecular subtypes were observed for the NGS classifier, recapitulating the survival curves of original ProMisE. In 28 of 545 (5%) discordant cases (8/211 (4%) in the validation set, 20/334 (6%) in the real world cohort), molecular subtype was able to be definitively assigned in all, based on review of the histopathological features and/or additional immunohistochemistry. DNA based molecular classification identified twice as many 'multiple classifier' endometrial cancers; 37 of 545 (7%) compared with 20 of 545 (4%) with original ProMisE. CONCLUSION:External validation confirmed that single test, DNA based molecular classification was highly concordant (95%) with original ProMisE classification, with prognostic value maintained, representing an acceptable alternative for clinical practice. Careful consideration of reasons for discordance and knowledge of how to correctly assign multiple classifier endometrial cancers is imperative for implementation.
Introduction/Background Endometrial carcinoma (EC) classify as p53 abnormal (p53abn) in up to 25% EC patients according to the current WHO classification. Despite the high sensitivity of p53abn EC to platinum-based chemotherapy, prognosis in this molecular group is poor. The combination of low mutational burden and high genomic instability is remarkably in this EC subpopulation and very similar to serous ovarian cancer, suggesting opportunities for overlapping treatment paradigms. Since p53 is part of several DNA repair pathways, p53 abnormality can lead to impaired homologous recombination deficiency(HRD), which can result in chromosomal instability and copy-number alterations. The aim of this study was to investigate HRD in primary advanced and recurrent p53abn EC patients. Methodology Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor samples from patients with primary advanced stage (FIGO III/IV) or recurrent disease were submitted to molecular classification including p53 and mismatch repair protein immunohistochemistry as well as POLE mutation testing. In patients with p53abn molecular classification HRD-testing was performed using the Myriad myChoice CDx test. Results A cohort of 53 patients was available for HRD testing, of which genomic instability scores (GIS) could be obtained in 37 cases. 28 patients (76%) were diagnosed with primary advanced stage disease, 9 patients (24%) were included with recurrent tumor after primary early stage (FIGO I/II) disease. Histology was serous in n=19 (51%), and endometrioid in n=10 cases (27%). According to ovarian carcinoma GIS cut-off values, n=8 (22%) patients were considered HRD positive (Figure 1), of which in 3 cases somatic BRCA mutation were found. Conclusion A significant number of p53abn EC were found to be HRD positive in this serie. Further investigation of HRD and EC-specific GIS cut-off value are highly warranted and may help to improve outcome in this specific EC subgroup. Patients with p53abn tumors may benefit from PARP inhibition and HRD testing may provide key information for patient selection. Disclosures This project was supported by GSK Pharmaceutical industry company.
IMPORTANCE Platinum-based chemotherapy is the backbone of standard-of-care treatment for patients with advanced-stage, high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), the most common form of ovarian cancer; however, one-third of patients have or acquire chemoresistance toward platinum-based therapies. OBJECTIVE To demonstrate the utility of tumor-stroma proportion (TSP) as a predictive biomarker of chemoresistance of HGSC, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This prognostic study leveraged tumors from patients with HGSC in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort (1993-2013) and an independent cohort of resected clinical specimens from patients with HGSC (2004-2014) available in diagnostic and tissue microarray formats from the University of Tubingen in Germany. Data analysis was conducted from January 2021 to January 2024. EXPOSURE Diagnosis of HGSC. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Principal outcome measures were the ability of TSP to predict platinum chemoresistance, PFS, and OS. Using hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides from the Tubingen cohort (used for routine diagnostic assessment from surgical specimens) as well as tissue microarrays, representative sections of tumors for scoring of TSP were identified using previously evaluated cutoffs of 50% stroma or greater (high TSP) and less than 50% stroma (low TSP). Digitized slides from the TCGA Cohort were analyzed and scored in a similar fashion. Kaplan-Meier time-to-event functions were fit to estimate PFS and OS. RESULTS The study included 103 patients (mean [SD] age, 61.6 [11.1] years) from the TCGA cohort and 192 patients (mean [SD] age at diagnosis, 63.7 [11.1] years) from the Tubingen cohort. In the TCGA cohort, there was no significant association of TSP levels with chemoresistance, PFS, or OS. However, in the Tubingen cohort, high TSP was associated with significantly shorter PFS (HR, 1.586; 95% CI, 1.093-2.302; P = .02) and OS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.867; 1.249-2.789; P = .002). Patients with chemoresistant tumors were twice as likely to have high TSP as compared to patients with chemosensitive tumors (HR, 2.861; 95% CI, 1.256-6.515; P = .01). In tissue microarrays from 185 patients from the Tubingen cohort, high TSP was again associated with significantly shorter PFS (HR, 1.675; 95% CI, 1.012-2.772 P = .04) and OS (HR, 2.491; 95% CI, 1.585-3.912; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this prognostic study, TSP was a consistent and reproducible marker of clinical outcome measures of HGSC, including PFS, OS, and platinum chemoresistance. Accurate and cost-effective predictive biomarkers of platinum chemotherapy resistance are needed to identify patients most likely to benefit from standard treatments, and TSP can easily be implemented and integrated into prospective clinical trial design and adapted to identify patients who are least likely to benefit long-term from conventional platinum-based cytotoxic chemotherapy treatment at the time of initial diagnosis.
BackgroundMalignant sex cord-stromal cell tumours (SCST) account for only 7% of ovarian malignancies. The Arbeitsgemeinschaft fuer Gynaekologische Onkologie (AGO) study group has established a clinicopathological database to provide an overview of the current treatment strategies and survival of SCST patients and to identify research needs. MethodsTwenty centres provided mixed retro- and prospective data of patients with tumour specimens and second-opinion pathology review treated between 2000 and 2014. Descriptive analyses of treatment strategies, Kaplan-Meier curves and cox regression analyses were conducted. ResultsTwo hundred and sixty-two SCST patients were included. One hundred and ninety-one Granulosa-cell tumour (GCT) and 17 Sertoli-Leydig cell tumour (SLCT) patients were stage I disease (>80%). Forty four GCT (18.7%) and two (8.3%) SLCT patients received adjuvant systemic treatment. After a median observation time of 78.2 months, 46% of all SCST patients experienced disease recurrence, treated predominantly with secondary debulking surgery (> 90%). Advanced FIGO stage, lymph node involvement and intra-operative capsule rupture were associated with disease recurrence on univariate analysis (all p < 0.05). Median OS time was not reached. DiscussionIn this analysis of SCST patients, adjuvant chemotherapy was unable to prevent disease recurrence. Despite high recurrence rates, overall survival rates were excellent.
Our objective was to test whether p53 expression status is associated with survival for women diagnosed with the most common ovarian carcinoma histotypes (high-grade serous carcinoma [HGSC], endometrioid carcinoma [EC], and clear cell carcinoma [CCC]) using a large multi-institutional cohort from the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis (OTTA) consortium. p53 expression was assessed on 6,678 cases represented on tissue microarrays from 25 participating OTTA study sites using a previously validated immunohistochemical (IHC) assay as a surrogate for the presence and functional effect of TP53 mutations. Three abnormal expression patterns (overexpression, complete absence, and cytoplasmic) and the normal (wild type) pattern were recorded. Survival analyses were performed by histotype. The frequency of abnormal p53 expression was 93.4% (4,630/4,957) in HGSC compared to 11.9% (116/973) in EC and 11.5% (86/748) in CCC. In HGSC, there were no differences in overall survival across the abnormal p53 expression patterns. However, in EC and CCC, abnormal p53 expression was associated with an increased risk of death for women diagnosed with EC in multivariate analysis compared to normal p53 as the reference (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.36-3.47, p = 0.0011) and with CCC (HR = 1.57, 95% CI 1.11-2.22, p = 0.012). Abnormal p53 was also associated with shorter overall survival in The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage I/II EC and CCC. Our study provides further evidence that functional groups of TP53 mutations assessed by abnormal surrogate p53 IHC patterns are not associated with survival in HGSC. In contrast, we validate that abnormal p53 IHC is a strong independent prognostic marker for EC and demonstrate for the first time an independent prognostic association of abnormal p53 IHC with overall survival in patients with CCC.
Supplementary Figure from Bevacizumab May Differentially Improve Prognosis of Advanced Ovarian Cancer Patients with Low Expression of VEGF-A165b, an Antiangiogenic VEGF-A Splice Variant
AbstractPurpose:Endometrioid ovarian carcinoma (ENOC) is the second most-common type of ovarian carcinoma, comprising 10%–20% of cases. Recently, the study of ENOC has benefitted from comparisons to endometrial carcinomas including defining ENOC with four prognostic molecular subtypes. Each subtype suggests differential mechanisms of progression, although tumor-initiating events remain elusive. There is evidence that the ovarian microenvironment may be critical to early lesion establishment and progression. However, while immune infiltrates have been well studied in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma, studies in ENOC are limited.Experimental Design:We report on 210 ENOC, with clinical follow-up and molecular subtype annotation. Using multiplex IHC and immunofluorescence, we examine the prevalence of T-cell lineage, B-cell lineage, macrophages, and populations with programmed cell death protein 1 or programmed death-ligand 1 across subtypes of ENOC.Results:Immune cell infiltrates in tumor epithelium and stroma showed higher densities in ENOC subtypes with known high mutation burden (POLEmut and MMRd). While molecular subtypes were prognostically significant, immune infiltrates were not (overall survival P > 0.2). Analysis by molecular subtype revealed that immune cell density was prognostically significant in only the no specific molecular profile (NSMP) subtype, where immune infiltrates lacking B cells (TILB minus) had inferior outcome (disease-specific survival: HR, 4.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.1–14.7; P < 0.05). Similar to endometrial carcinomas, molecular subtype stratification was generally superior to immune response in predicting outcomes.Conclusions:Subtype stratification is critical for better understanding of ENOC, in particular the distribution and prognostic significance of immune cell infiltrates. The role of B cells in the immune response within NSMP tumors warrants further study.
Background The tumor stroma is composed of a complex network of non-cancerous cells and extracellular matrix elements that collectively are crucial for cancer progression and treatment response. Within the realm of ovarian cancer, the expression of the stromal gene cluster has been linked to poorer progression-free and overall survival rates. However, in the age of precision medicine and genome sequencing, the notion that the simple measurement of tumor-stroma proportion alone can serve as a biomarker for clinical outcome is a topic that continues to generate controversy and provoke discussion. Our current study reveals that it is the quantity of stroma, rather than its quality, that serves as a clinically significant indicator of patient outcome in ovarian cancer. Methods This study leveraged the High-Grade-Serous-Carcinoma (HGSC) cohort of the publicly accessible Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA) along with an independent cohort comprising HGSC clinical specimens in diagnostic and Tissue Microarray formats. Our objective was to investigate the correlation between the Tumor-Stroma-Proportion (TSP) and progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and response to chemotherapy. We assessed these associations using H&E-stained slides and tissue microarrays. Our analysis employed semi-parametric models that accounted for age, metastases, and residual disease as controlling factors. Results We found that high TSP (>50% stroma) was associated with significantly shorter progression-free survival (PFS) (p=0.016) and overall survival (OS) (p=0.006). Tumors from patients with chemoresistant tumors were twice as likely to have high TSP as compared to tumors from chemosensitive patients (p=0.012). In tissue microarrays, high TSP was again associated with significantly shorter PFS (p=0.044) and OS (p=0.0001), further confirming our findings. The Area Under the ROC curve for the model predicting platinum was estimated at 0.7644. Conclusions In HGSC, TSP was a consistent and reproducible marker of clinical outcome measures, including PFS, OS, and platinum chemoresistance. Assessment of TSP as a predictive biomarker that can be easily implemented and integrated into prospective clinical trial design and adapted to identify, at time of initial diagnosis, patients who are least likely to benefit long-term from conventional platinum-based cytotoxic chemotherapy treatment.
Incorporation of molecular classification into clinicopathologic assessment of endometrial carcinoma (EC) improves risk stratification. Four EC molecular subtypes, as identified by The Cancer Genome Atlas, can be diagnosed through a validated algorithm Pro active M olecular R is k Classifier for E ndometrial Cancer (ProMisE) using p53 and mismatch repair (MMR) protein immunohistochemistry (IHC), and DNA polymerase epsilon ( POLE) mutational testing. Cost and access are major barriers to universal testing, particularly POLE analysis. We assessed a selective ProMisE algorithm (ProMisE-S): p53 and MMR IHC on all EC's with POLE testing restricted to those with abnormal MMR or p53 IHC (to identify POLEmut EC with secondary abnormalities in MMR and/or p53) and those with high-grade or non-endometrioid morphology, stage >IA or presence of lymphovascular space invasion (so as to avoid testing on the lowest risk tumors). We retrospectively compared the known ProMisE molecular classification to ProMisE-S in 912 EC. We defined a group of "very low-risk" EC (G1/G2, endometrioid, MMR-proficient, p53 wild-type, stage IA, no lymphovascular space invasion) in whom POLE testing will not impact on patient care; using ProMisE-S, POLE testing would not be required in 55% of biopsies and 38% of all EC's, after evaluation of the hysterectomy specimen, in a population-based cohort. "Very low-risk" endometrioid EC with unknown POLE status showed excellent clinical outcomes. Fifteen of 166 (9%) of all p53abn EC showed G1/G2 endometrioid morphology, supporting the potential value of universal p53 IHC. The addition of molecular testing changed the risk category in 89/896 (10%) EC's. In routine practice, POLE testing could be further restricted to only those patients in whom this would alter adjuvant therapy recommendations.