Introduction: Endometrial cancer (EC) is one of the most frequent gynecological cancers worldwide. The gold standard treatment of EC is most certainly surgery and may very well be the only therapy in the early stages of disease. To improve outcomes in non-early EC, adjuvant therapy is often employed but this is not standardized. Adjuvant options can include radiotherapy, chemotherapy or a combination of both. Adjuvant chemotherapy could be indicated in high-risk stage I and II or advanced stage EC. Several clinical trials are ongoing in an attempt to define the optimal adjuvant treatment. Furthermore, chemotherapy is the front-line therapy in advanced unresectable, metastatic or recurrent endometrial cancer. Areas covered: Herein, the authors review the first-line chemotherapy for the treatment of endometrial cancer and provide their expert perspectives on these therapies. Expert opinion: Chemotherapy is fundamental in advanced/recurrent EC. Further evidence is needed to characterize the role of adjuvant chemotherapy. Future studies should consider genomic and molecular heterogeneities to identify even more efficient tailored therapies.

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Low-grade stage I endometrioid endometrial carcinomas should have an excellent prognosis, but a small subset of these cancers can relapse. The search for putative immunohistochemical prognostic markers for relapse in low-risk/low-grade endometrioid endometrial cancers remains open. Among the candidate molecules that may implicate the roles of immunohistochemical risk markers, we focused our attention on human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) after a review of the literature. Few authors have devoted themselves to this topic, and none have found a correlation between the tissue expression of HE4 and the molecular classification of endometrial cancer. Five different variants of HE4 mRNA and multiple protein isoforms of HE4 were identified many years ago, but current HE4 assays only measure the total HE4 expression and do not distinguish the different proteins encoded by different mRNA variants. It is important to have an approach to distinguish specific variants in the future.

Background: The aim of this preliminary retrospective study was to assess the feasibility and accuracy of Indocyanine Green (ICG) sentinel node (SLN) sampling using a laparoscopic camera during open endometrial cancer surgery. Material and methods: Retrospective study. Fourteen women with endometrial cancer, not fit for a complete laparoscopic staging, underwent SLN mapping using the IMAGE1 camera during open surgery. Results: The median age of patients was 67 (range 33–86) years. Median BMI was 31 (range 23–58). Mean operative time 157.5 minutes and hospital stay three days. The overall detection rate of SLN mapping was 93%. Bilateral detection was 86%. No post-operative short or long-term complications were observed. Conclusions: Real-time NIR technology supported by the IMAGE1 S is a reliable system and represents a promising method for SLN mapping in selected cases with EC and severe surgical risks, during 48 traditional open approaches. The use of laparoscopy ICG in open surgery seems to be a feasible and useful tool for the detection of SLN in endometrial cancer patients with intraoperative and/or postoperative high morbidity risk. It represents a valid alternative to robotic surgery, particularly in countries and centers where the robotic platform or SPY system for open surgery are not available.