Prognostic value of peritoneal fluid cytology in patients with endometrial cancer stage I.

With increasing depth of invasion of the endometrial adenocarcinoma in the myometrium an increasing number and percentage of patients with endometrial adenocarcinoma cells in the pouch of Douglas are found. The presence or absence of endometrial tumour cells can be used as an indicator of the depth of invasion in the myometrium. Survival is correlated with the presence of endometrial adenocarcinoma cells in cases with deep invasion; 50% recurrent disease was observed when the fluid was positive, no recurrent disease when negative. No correlation between survival and presence or absence of tumour cells in the Douglas fluid was found in cases with superficial invasion of the tumour in the myometrium.