This article describes the clinicopathologic features of six cases of uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC), which developed several years after radiation therapy (RT) for cervical carcinoma. The possible etiologic role of radiation is discussed, and the literature on endometrial carcinomas developing after RT is reviewed. Cancer 1992; 69:496-501.
Uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC) is a clinically aggressive and morphologically distinct variant of endometrial carcinoma, which has been recognized only recently as a distinct entity. The association between radiation therapy (RT) and UPSC has never been fully documented in the literature, with only three such cases being reported by Gallion et al.' We describe six cases in which this unusual type of endometrial carcinoma occurred several years after the patients had received RT for cervical carcinoma.
Materials and Methods
In a review of 80 cases of UPSC treated at Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut, from December 1983 to November 1990, we identified six cases (7.5%) in which the patients had received full-course RT for the treatment of cervical carcinoma several years before development of UPSC. The following were available in all cases: microscopic slides relative to the cervical and uterine carcinomas, clinical histories, and the details of RT and follow-up (extending from a minimum of 1 month to a maximum of 18 months, or until death).