Background: Endometrial cancer is the most frequent malignancy of the female genital tract.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the five-year survival rates, prognostic factors and recurrence patterns of patients with endometrioid type endometrial cancer.

Patients and Methods: The data for patients with endometrioid-type endometrial cancer (n = 208) who had been treated at the gynecology oncology ward of Vali-e-Asr Hospital of Tehran, Iran, between 1999 and 2009 were analyzed.

Results: The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 54 years (range, 28 - 74). Cause-specific survival rates of the entire group were 92%, 87% and 82%, at two, three and five years, respectively. The five-year cause-specific survival rates for grades one, two and three were 98%, 88% and 68%, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that age, depth of myometrial invasion, involvement of ovaries, tumor grades and involvement of serosa were significant independent predictors of survival (P = 0.015, 0.001, 0.015, 0.024, and 0.030, respectively).

Conclusions: Timely detection of improvements in five-year survival rates might help prevent clinicians and their patients from undue discouragement or depression by outdated and often overly pessimistic survival expectations. It also adds to the value of cancer surveillance as a basis for appropriate public-health decisions.