Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the predictors of hematogenous dissemination (HD) in corpus cancer.

Methods: In 612 corpus cancer patients managed surgically, we defined HD as tumor spread to the lung, liver, or other sites via hematogenous routes.

Results: We observed 142 instances of tumor spread-71 nonhematogenous and 42 hematogenous to the lung, 9 to the liver, 5 to other sites (adrenals, breast, brain, bone, skin), 3 to both liver and lung, 1 to both lung and bone, and 11 to sites unknown. Stage IV disease, positive adnexae, deep myometrial invasion, primary tumor diameter, tumor involving the whole uterine cavity, positive peritoneal cytology, adjuvant radiotherapy, adjuvant chemotherapy, grade 3 histology, histologic subtype, and lymph-vascular invasion significantly (P < or = 0.01) correlated with HD. However, deep myometrial invasion was the only independent predictor of HD. Only 5% of patients with < or = 50% myometrial invasion had HD compared with 23% with > 50% myometrial invasion. Considering separately recurrence in the lung and in the liver and recurrence in other sites, the only independent predictors of lung recurrence were stage IV disease and myometrial invasion, whereas independent predictors of HD to the liver/other sites were age and histologic grade. Considering only the 60 patients with a known site of HD, 67% with lung recurrence were > 65 years old compared with 17% with HD to the liver/other sites. Furthermore, grade 1-2 disease was observed in 65% of patients with lung recurrence compared with 27% with HD to the liver/other sites.

Conclusions: The presence of deep myometrial invasion was the strongest predictor of HD in corpus cancer, and, together with stage IV disease, it independently predicted lung recurrence. Recurrence in the lung was more frequent in older patients with well or moderately differentiated tumors, whereas HD to the liver/other sites was more frequent in patients < or = 65 years of age harboring grade 3 tumors.