Endometrial Cancer Treatment

Our treatment approach

At MD Anderson, your treatment for endometrial cancer is customized just for you by some of the nation's leading experts. They work in teams, collaborating at every step, to be sure you receive comprehensive, yet highly specialized care.

We personalize your care to include the most advanced treatments while striving to minimize side effects. 

Surgical skill and experience

For endometrial cancer, surgery often is one of the main treatments. 

Like all surgeries, endometrial cancer surgery is most successful when done by a specialist with a great deal of experience in the particular procedure. MD Anderson surgeons are among the most skilled and recognized in the world.

They perform a large number of endometrial cancer surgeries each year, using the least invasive and most advanced techniques. For some patients, minimally invasive surgeries can mean faster healing and less time in the hospital.

We are also constantly researching newer, safer and more effective endometrial cancer treatments. We're leading the way in endometrial cancer research, which means we can offer a variety of clinical trials of new therapies.

Our endometrial cancer treatments

If you are diagnosed with endometrial cancer, your health care team will discuss the best options to treat it. This depends on several factors, including the type and stage of the cancer, molecular factors and your general health. One or more of the following therapies may be recommended to treat endometrial cancer or help relieve symptoms.

For women who wish to retain the ability to have children, there are some options for preserving the uterus, including the use of oral progesterone or a progesterone eluting IUD. MD Anderson physicians have been national leaders in developing fertility preserving options.

Surgery

Surgery is the main treatment for endometrial cancer and can help determine the stage of the cancer. Surgery for endometrial cancer can include:

• Total hysterectomy - surgical removal of the uterus and cervix
• Bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of both ovaries and fallopian tubes)
• Sentinel lymph node mapping and biopsies (Lymph nodes are small structures the size and shape of a bean. They help to filter waste products, infection, and cancer from your body. The sentinel lymph node is the first lymph node in a chain of lymph nodes that the cancer may spread to. Sentinel lymph node mapping is a procedure where a special dye is used to find that first lymph node.)
• Pelvic and para-aortic lymph node dissection: Removal of lymph nodes in the pelvis and lower abdomen along the aorta

Sometimes a radical hysterectomy is done rather than a simple hysterectomy. This means removal of the:

• Uterus
• Cervix and surrounding tissue
• Upper vagina

Depending on your health and how far the endometrial cancer has spread, surgery may be:

• Minimally invasive: After making several small incisions (cuts) in the abdomen, the doctor uses a laparoscope or robotic surgery to remove the organs. The uterus often is removed through the vagina.
• Open: A large incision is made in the abdomen.

Surgery for endometrial cancer that has spread to the abdomen may also include tumor debulking. During this procedure, the surgeon removes as much of the cancer as possible before other kinds of treatment.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy uses powerful, focused beams of energy to kill cancer cells. There are several different radiation therapy techniques. Doctors can use these to accurately target a tumor while minimizing damage to healthy tissue. This therapy may be used to treat endometrial cancer after a hysterectomy or as the main treatment when surgery is not possible. Depending on the stage and grade of the cancer, radiation therapy also may be used at other points of treatment.

MD Anderson provides the most advanced radiation treatments for endometrial cancer. Radiation therapy can include external beam radiation therapy and/or brachytherapy:

• External beam radiation therapy: A machine is used to aim high-energy beams of radiation from outside of the body at the tumor.
• Brachytherapy: Radiation therapy is given internally near the tumor or tumor bed using a device or a temporary implant.

Talk to your health care team about possible side effects of radiation treatment for endometrial cancer. Some women experience low blood counts (white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets), skin changes, irritation of the bladder, irritation of the intestine and scarring of the vagina.

Learn more about radiation therapy.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells, control their growth or relieve disease-related symptoms. Chemotherapy may involve a single drug or a combination of two or more drugs, depending on the type of cancer and how fast it is growing. 

Learn more about chemotherapy.

Hormone therapy

Some hormones can cause certain endometrial cancers to grow. If tests show the cancer cells have receptors where hormones can attach, drugs can be used to reduce hormones or block them from working.

Hormone therapies that may be used to treat endometrial cancer include:

• Progestins (oral or via progestin releasing intrauterine device (IUD))
• Tamoxifen
• Aromatase inhibitors

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy drugs are designed to stop or slow the growth or spread of cancer. This happens on a cellular level. Cancer cells need specific molecules (often in the form of proteins) to survive, multiply and spread. These molecules are usually made by the genes that cause cancer, as well as the cells themselves. Targeted therapies are designed to interfere with, or target, these molecules or the cancer-causing genes that create them.  

Learn more about targeted therapy.

Immunotherapy

The immune system finds and defends the body from infection and disease. Cancer is a complex disease that can evade and outsmart the immune system. Immunotherapy improves the immune system’s ability to eliminate cancer. 

Learn more about immunotherapy.

Endometrial cancer clinical trials

We’re studying new ways to prevent and treat endometrial cancers to give patients everywhere futures filled with hope.

Because of our status as one of the world’s premier cancer centers, MD Anderson participates in many clinical trials (research studies) for endometrial cancer. Sometimes they are a patient’s best option for treatment. Other times, they help researchers learn how to treat cancer and improve the future of cancer treatment.