Contemporary treatment of the malignant tumors of the uterus

Yearly around half a million women are diagnosed with uterine cancer worldwide, having leaded to 90,000 deaths in 2018. Endometrial cancers (ECs) are the most common forms of gynaecological malignancies, while sarcomas represent not more than 3% of uterine cancers. In 80-85% of cases ECs are low-grade and diagnosed at an early stage, therefore potentially curable by surgical procedure and postoperative radiotherapy (if necessary). However, the optimal adjuvant management of high risk ECs is still an issue and the recognition of molecular subtypes is generating further clinical investigations in the field. Surgery is also the only curative method in sarcoma-care, but evidences for adjuvant management is scarce and indefinite. Beyond therapeutic benefits, quality of life is also an important factor in modern oncology. Therefore in gynaecological oncology there are intentions like preserving fertility and ovarian function, avoiding systemic lymphadenectomy or using minimal invasive technique to improve the patients’ quality of life without the deterioration of the therapeutic outcome. In the management of advanced endometrial cancer, the biological agents have opened a new era in recent years: pembrolizumab as second line option for MSI-H/dMMR/TMB high EC and the combination of lenvatinib-pembrolizumab for MSS/pMMR EC have been approved. But there are also promising results or ongoing studies with other agents: anti-HER2 therapy for serous EC, cabozantinib-nivolumab or ipilimumab-nivolumab for carcinosarcoma, PARP inhibitors with endocrine therapy for ER positive ECs. Here I present a short summary on the current therapeutic options and the most important ongoing clinical trials in uterine cancer.