Dr. Ganjoo on the Treatment of Early-Stage Uterine Leiomyosarcoma

Kristen N. Ganjoo, MD, associate professor of medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford Medicine, discusses the treatment of patients with early-stage uterine leiomyosarcoma.

Currently, the standard of care for this patient population is surgery. In early-stage disease, there is insufficient evidence to prove that adjuvant chemotherapy would help prevent the recurrence of tumors, Ganjoo explains. There were some phase II studies of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early-stage uterine leiomyosarcoma that showed promise, but the subsequent phase III study was abandoned due to low accrual.

Chemotherapy is not recommended following surgery for patients with stage I or II disease, she adds. However, if a patient with stage II uterine leiomyosarcoma has an aggressive tumor, chemotherapy is often recommended to prevent metastatic lesions from growing. Ganjoo explains that the chemotherapy will attack any microscopic cells that are circulating post-surgery, warding off recurrence or metastatic disease.