Prospective Evaluation of Quality of Life and Treatment-related Side Effects of Women Undergoing Multimodality Treatment for Advanced Stage Endometrial Carcinoma

Patients with FIGO stage III endometrial carcinoma often require multimodality adjuvant therapy to improve survival and recurrence rates; however, the optimal adjuvant therapy sequence is yet to be established.

Several studies have tried to answer this question including RTOG 9708, PORTEC-3, and GOG 258. Collectively, these studies show that concurrent chemotherapy and radiation (chemoRT) with cisplatin followed by additional chemotherapy (CT) and CT alone are acceptable regimens. However, both strategies show that distant recurrence remains a problem when CT is delayed after RT, and local control is compromised without RT.

We wish to prospectively assess outcomes of women with advanced endometrial carcinoma who receive concurrent chemoRT with a carboplatin/paclitaxel-based regimen.

A total of 60 patients with FIGO stage III uterine carcinoma will be prospectively enrolled after undergoing surgical staging (currently accruing). CT will start approximately 4 weeks after surgery. Patients will receive 6 cycles of carboplatin (AUC 6) and paclitaxel (175 mg/m2).

RT will be given during CT cycles 1-3. External beam RT will be given via intensity-modulated RT in once-daily fractions of 1.8-2.0 Gy for a total dose of 44-45 Gy to the pelvis (vaginal cuff, pelvic LN, and para-aortic lymph nodes). If there is grossly visible nodal disease seen at the time of treatment planning, a boost to 54 Gy will be given to those areas. If the patient has cervical stromal invasion, we will recommend that she receive a brachytherapy boost.

Data will be collected on OS and PFS endpoints. Data will also be collected on provider- and patient-reported treatment toxicity. Patients will receive a series of questionnaires at baseline, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after surgery. These are prospectively-validated questionnaires and include FACT-G, FACT-En, FACT/GOG-NTX, and FACT-C.

For statistical analyses, continuous and categorical variables will be analyzed. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates will be calculated for local control and survival end points. For each patient, disease characteristics and adjuvant treatment will be placed in a simple logistic regression model for predicting survival endpoints. A multivariate analysis will be performed for exploratory purposes. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals will be reported. Tests will be considered significant at p < 0.05.