Advances in the treatment of endometrial cancer.

Abstract

Endometrial cancer (EC) most commonly affects postmenopausal women. It is curable if treated early, but tumours with adverse histopathological features or at an advanced stage are associated with a high mortality rate. These cancers require a complex therapeutic approach, consisting of surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy. As one of the leading causes of death from malignancy in women, EC has been subject to intense clinical investigation. This article examines recent advances in the surgical treatment of the disease, such as sentinel lymph node sampling and total laparoscopic hysterectomy, as well as topics such as conservative treatment of EC for fertility preservation. Furthermore, new agents for EC treatment are presented, for example inhibitors of the mTOR pathway and the angiogenesis-inhibitor VEGF-trap.