Endometrial carcinoma and diabetes revisited

Objective: To investigate whether endometrial adenocarcinomas are intrinsically different in diabetic as compared to non-diabetic patients.

Methods: A series of 208 patients with histologically confirmed endometrial adenocarcinomas were divided into groups of diabetic (n = 63) and non-diabetic (n = 145) patients. The two groups were compared in terms of tumor morphology, FIGO stage, clinical risk factors and 12-year survival.

Results: A history of a second neoplasia was significantly more frequent in diabetic than in non-diabetic patients (p = 0.001), but other endometrial cancer associated characteristics, such as tumor morphology, FIGO stage, obesity, hypertension, nulliparity, estrogen use and menopausal status did not differ between the groups. More importantly, the two groups had a similar 12-year survival rate (p = 0.8742).

Conclusions: A second neoplasia occurred significantly more frequently in diabetic than in non-diabetic patients with endometrial carcinoma, but long-term survival and other clinical and histological features were the same in the two groups. These results indicate that endometrial adenocarcinoma is not intrinsically different in diabetic patients.

Diabetes mellitus; Endometrial carcinoma; Risk factors; Survival

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