MRI-assessed tumor-free distance to serosa predicts deep myometrial invasion and poor outcome in endometrial cancer

Objectives To explore the diagnostic accuracy of preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-derived tumor measurements for the prediction of histopathological deep (≥ 50%) myometrial invasion (pDMI) and prognostication in endometrial cancer (EC). Methods Preoperative pelvic MRI of 357 included patients with histologically confirmed EC were read independently by three radiologists blinded to clinical information. The radiologists recorded imaging findings (T1 post-contrast sequence) suggesting deep (≥ 50%) myometrial invasion (iDMI) and measured anteroposterior tumor diameter (APD), depth of myometrial tumor invasion (DOI) and tumor-free distance to serosa (iTFD). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the prediction of pDMI were plotted for the different MRI measurements. The predictive and prognostic value of the MRI measurements was analyzed using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard model. Results iTFD yielded highest area under the ROC curve (AUC) for the prediction of pDMI with an AUC of 0.82, whereas DOI, APD and iDMI yielded AUCs of 0.74, 0.81 and 0.74, respectively. Multivariate analysis for predicting pDMI yielded highest predictive value of iTFD < 6 mm with OR of 5.8 (p < 0.001) and lower figures for DOI ≥ 5 mm (OR = 2.8, p = 0.01), APD ≥ 17 mm (OR = 2.8, p < 0.001) and iDMI (OR = 1.1, p = 0.82). Patients with iTFD < 6 mm also had significantly reduced progression-free survival with hazard ratio of 2.4 (p < 0.001). Conclusion For predicting pDMI, iTFD yielded best diagnostic performance and iTFD < 6 mm outperformed other cutoff-based imaging markers and conventional subjective assessment of deep myometrial invasion (iDMI) for diagnosing pDMI. Thus, iTFD at MRI represents a promising preoperative imaging biomarker that may aid in predicting pDMI and high-risk disease in EC.

Association of Myometrial Invasion With Lymphovascular Space Invasion, Lymph Node Metastasis, Recurrence, and Overall Survival in Endometrial Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of 79 Studies With 68,870 Patients

BackgroundMyometrial invasion has been demonstrated to correlate to clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis in endometrial cancer. However, not all the studies have the consistent results and no meta-analysis has investigated the association of myometrial invasion with lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI), lymph node metastasis (LNM), recurrence, and overall survival (OS). Therefore, a meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between myometrial invasion and clinicopathological characteristics or overall survival in endometrial cancer.Materials and MethodsA search of Pubmed, Embase, and Web of Science was carried out to collect relevant studies from their inception until June 30, 2021. The quality of each included study was evaluated using Newcastle–Ottawa scale (NOS) scale. Review Manager version 5.4 was employed to conduct the meta-analysis.ResultsA total of 79 articles with 68,870 endometrial cancer patients were eligible including 9 articles for LVSI, 29 articles for LNM, 8 for recurrence, and 37 for OS in this meta-analysis. Myometrial invasion was associated with LVSI (RR 3.07; 95% CI 2.17–4.35; p &lt; 0.00001), lymph node metastasis (LNM) (RR 4.45; 95% CI 3.29–6.01; p &lt; 0.00001), and recurrence (RR 2.06; 95% CI 1.58–2.69; p &lt; 0.00001). Deep myometrial invasion was also significantly related with poor OS via meta-synthesis of HRs in both univariate survival (HR 3.36, 95% CI 2.35–4.79, p &lt; 0.00001) and multivariate survival (HR 2.00, 95% CI 1.59–2.53, p &lt; 0.00001). Funnel plot suggested that there was no significant publication bias in this study.ConclusionDeep myometrial invasion correlated to positive LVSI, positive LNM, cancer recurrence, and poor OS for endometrial cancer patients, indicating that myometrial invasion was a useful evaluation criterion to associate with clinical outcomes and prognosis of endometrial cancer since depth of myometrial invasion can be assessed before surgery. The large scale and comprehensive meta-analysis suggested that we should pay more attention to myometrial invasion in clinical practice, and its underlying mechanism also deserves further investigation.

TXNDC17 Protein Overexpression in Uterine Papillary Serous Carcinoma is Associated with Chemoresistance

Background: TXNDC17(thioredoxin domain containing 17 protein) has primarily been associated with ovarian cancer. It concurs resistance to paclitaxel by inducing autophagy. However, limited information exists on its role in uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC). This study aimed to analyze clinicopathological characteristics of patients with UPSC in China, and investigate roles of TXNDC17 protein in UPSC chemoresistance and prognosis. Methods: Fifty-five patients with UPSC treated in women’s hospital school of medicine Zhejiang university from 2003 to 2016 were analysed retrospectively. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) were performed to TXNDC17 and BECN1 (Beclin 1 protein, a key regulator of autophagy) protein expression respectively. Results: A total of 55 UPSC patients of median age (63.3 years), 43.7% with late stages (stage III/IV), and 48.6 % exhibiting more than half of myometrium invasion were enrolled. Notably, 28 (50.9%) patients had TXNDC17 protein overexpression associated with chemoresistance and high BECN1 expression. BECN1 overexpression occurred at an advanced stage and was characterized by deep myometrial invasion. Of note, advanced stage, deep myometrial invasion, BECN1, and TXNDC17 overexpression were significantly associated with a poor outcome. Besides, co-expression of TXNDC17 and BECN1 occurred at an advanced stage causing deep myometrial invasion and chemoresistance thereby resulted in the shortest survival in UPSC. The multivariate proportional hazards model revealed that myometrial invasion and TXNDC17 overexpression were independent prognostic factors. Conclusion: This study showed that TXNDC17 overexpression, through induces autophagy, and consequently results in chemoresistance and poor survival in UPSC patients. TXDNC17 may be a potential predictor or target in UPSC therapeutics.

Tumoral volume measured preoperatively by magnetic resonance imaging is related to survival in endometrial cancer

BackgroundThe aim of the study was to determine if the endometrial tumor volume (TV) measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI-TV) is associated with survival in endometrial cancer and lymph nodes metastases (LN+).Patients and methodsWe evaluated the MRI imaging and records of 341 women with endometrial cancer and preoperative MRI from 2008 to 2018. The MRI-TV was calculated using the ellipsoid formula measuring three perpendicular tumor diameters. Tumor myometrial invasion was also analyzed.ResultsHigher MRI-TV was associated with age ≥ 65y, non-endometrioid tumors, grade-3, deep-myometrial invasion, LN+ and advanced FIGO stage. There were 37 patients with LN+ (8.8%). Non-endometrioid tumors, deep-myometrial invasion, grade-3 and MRI-TV ≥ 10 cm3 were the factors associated with LN+. Using a receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curve, the MRI-TV cut-off for survival was 10 cm3 (area under curve [AUC] = 0.70; 95% CI: 0.61–0.73). 5 years disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS) was significantly lower in MRI-TV ≥ 10 cm3 (69.3% vs. 84.5%, and 75.4% vs. 96.1%, respectively). MRI-TV was considered an independent factor of DFS (HR: 2.20, 95% CI: 1.09–4.45, p = 0.029) and OS (HR: 3.88, 95% CI: 1.34–11.24, p = 0.012) in multivariate analysis.ConclusionsMRI-TV was associated with LN+, and MRI-TV ≥ 10 cm3 was an independent prognostic factor of lower DFS and OS. The MRI-TV can be auxiliary information to plan the surgery strategy and predict the adjuvant treatment in women with endometrial cancer.