Reoperation with Total Hysterectomy after Incomplete Surgery Is Helpful in Patients with Incidentally Diagnosed Uterine Leiomyosarcoma.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of initial surgical treatments and surgical re-exploration on the oncological outcomes of patients with incidentally diagnosed uterine leiomyosarcoma (uLMS).

DESIGN

A retrospective analysis of 87 patients who underwent re-exploration for incidentally diagnosed uLMS at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center was performed.

METHODS

Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used for analyses.

RESULTS

The median age (range) at diagnosis was 49 (23-76) years. The median disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were 15.1 and 56.7 months, respectively. The Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests showed the median DFS was longer in patients with restaging operation (N = 30) than without (N = 55) (p = 0.017) but no significant difference in median OS (p = 0.142). In patients who underwent myomectomy/subtotal hysterectomy, 5 patients (28.5%) had remnant sarcoma during re-exploration with complete uterine removal, and re-exploration was associated with longer DFS (p = 0.038) and OS (p = 0.042).

LIMITATIONS

The limitation of this study is its retrospective observational design with a limited number of patients.

CONCLUSION

Reoperation with total hysterectomy after incomplete surgery may be helpful in patients with incidentally diagnosed uLMS at the first treatment.