Uterine cancer restaging according to the updated 2023 FIGO Guidelines does not uniformly affect prognosis: An institutional retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE

Efforts have been made to better risk stratify patients given the rise in incidence of endometrial cancer (EC). The 2023 FIGO staging now incorporates histologic subtype and molecular classification into determination of EC stage. We sought to elucidate if the new staging system demonstrated prognostic differences compared to the 2009 staging system.

METHODS

A retrospective chart review was performed on women treated for EC at our institution from September 2013 to May 2023 and combined with the publicly available TCGA Nature 2013 dataset. Detailed clinical information was captured. Patients were restaged according to the 2023 guidelines. Survival estimates were obtained using Kaplan-Meier method, and the log-rank test was used to compare survival curves for progression-free survival (PFS).

RESULTS

919 patients were included in our analysis. The datasets were comparable regarding histologic grade, stage, and age at diagnosis. 175 (31.5%) of patients in the institution dataset and 115 (31.6%) patients in the TCGA dataset experienced a stage change. Most patients whose stage changed were upstaged (275/290; 94.8%). 3-year PFS estimates for stage IA patients with no stage change versus those upstaged were 92.3% (95% CI: 87.2, 95.4) v. 72.0% (95% CI: 68.4, 84.9), p = 0.002. No significant differences in survival difference were seen in other stage subsets.

CONCLUSION

Modest survival differences exist in patients with EC originally staged as IA who underwent upstaging. No significant survival difference is observed in patients who are restaged to stage II or III subsets. Improved risk stratification is needed in assessing prognosis and adjuvant therapy for patients with endometrial cancer.