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Medicine 2014-04-23 1 min read

ASTRO issues guideline on the role of postoperative radiation therapy for endometrial cancer

Fairfax, Va., April 23, 2014— The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has issued a new guideline, "The Role of Postoperative Radiation Therapy for Endometrial Cancer: An ASTRO Evidence-Based Guideline," that details the use of adjuvant radiation therapy in the treatment of endometrial cancer. The guideline's executive summary is published in the May-June 2014 issue of Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO), the official clinical practice journal of ASTRO. The full-length guideline is available as an open-access article online at http://www.practicalradonc.org.

ASTRO's Guidelines Panel of 17 leading gynecologic specialists compiled and reviewed extensive data from 330 studies from MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Specialized Register of the Cochrane Gynaecological Cancer Review Group published from 1980 to 2011. The data population selected for the guideline was defined as women of all races, age 18 or older, with stage I-IV endometrial cancer of any histologic type or grade. The studies included patients who underwent a hysterectomy followed by no adjuvant therapy, or pelvic and/or vaginal brachytherapy with or without systemic chemotherapy. The panel identified five key questions about the role of adjuvant radiation therapy and developed a series of recommendations to address each question.

The first Key Question addresses which patients with endometrioid endometrial cancer require no additional therapy after hysterectomy. For patients with no residual disease in the hysterectomy specimen despite positive biopsy or grade 1 or 2 cancers with either no invasion or END