Pathological findings and prognosis from uterine malignancy

This review examines methods of assessing the prognosis of uterine tumors published in the past year. Evaluation of mitosis counts has shown that mitotically active leiomyomas without cytologic atypia follow a benign course; furthermore, the mitotic index does not differentiate endometrial hyperplasia from adenocarcinoma. 'Vascular invasion-associated changes' (VIAC) have been identified as a new prognostic factor for stage 1 endometrial adenocarcinoma. HER-2/neu oncogene expression is also a major prognostic factor in endometrial carcinoma, but positive peritoneal cytology influences survival only in the presence of extrauterine disease. Frozen-section diagnosis and curettings findings at the time of surgery identify poor prognostic factors, allowing limited surgery in patients without poor prognostic indicators. Finally, DNA ploidy as determined by flow cytometry was of prognostic value in uterine sarcomas in one study but not in another when endometrial stromal sarcomas were analysed separately.