After receiving an advanced endometrial cancer diagnosis, you may feel like you’re lost in a storm with no way out. For some, learning more about their disease can offer a beacon of hope. Educating yourself on the latest statistics and survival rates may bring some comfort when you’re feeling fearful.

This article covers what you need to know about advanced endometrial cancer prognosis (outlook). You’ll read about factors that affect your outlook and survival. You’ll also learn about recent advances in treatment and research, providing information and hope to those living with this cancer.

Factors That Affect an Advanced Endometrial Cancer Prognosis

When your oncologist (cancer doctor) predicts your endometrial cancer outlook, they consider many factors. These are known as prognostic or predictive factors. Some factors center around your specific endometrial cancer case. Others are related to your age and underlying health conditions.

Endometrial Cancer Stage

Doctors classify how severe endometrial cancer is by its stage. The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) system stages endometrial cancer based on:

• How large the tumor is and whether it’s grown into nearby organs
• Whether the cancer has spread into nearby immune system structures known as lymph nodes
• Whether the cancer has metastasized (spread) to other parts of the body

Typically, the higher your stage, the worse your prognosis. People with advanced endometrial cancer have either stage 3 or stage 4 disease.

Endometrial Cancer Grade

The FIGO system also grades endometrial cancers based on how severe they are. During surgery, your doctor will do a biopsy. They’ll take a tissue sample from a tumor, and then a pathologist will take a close look at the sample under a microscope. They’ll compare your tumor cells to normal cells and look for differences.

Your endometrial cancer gets graded on a scale of 1 to 3, depending on how different the tumor cells are from normal cells. Lower-grade cancers get a score of 1 or 2, and high-grade cancers are scored as 3. Low-grade endometrial cancers look and behave more like normal cells and are less likely to grow and spread. High-grade cancer cells look less like normal cells. They’re more aggressive and tend to spread quickly.

People with high-grade endometrial cancer tend to have a worse prognosis. One study of 276 people with endometrial cancer looked at survival rates based on cancer grade. They found that the overall survival rates after three years were:

• Grade 1 — 95.6 percent
• Grade 2 — 82.1 percent
• Grade 3 — 61.9 percent

This means that after three years, 95.6 percent of people with grade 1 tumors were alive. On the other hand, 61.9 percent of those with grade 3 tumors were alive.

Endometrial Cancer Type

Health care providers divide endometrial cancer into different types depending on where the tumor starts. The most common type is endometrioid adenocarcinoma, which forms in the glands along the endometrium (lining of the uterus). Less common types include:

• Uterine clear cell carcinoma
• Uterine papillary serous carcinoma
• Uterine carcinosarcoma
• Uterine sarcoma

You may also hear that endometrial cancers are divided into type 1 and type 2 tumors. Type 1 tumors are considered low-grade and less aggressive. Type 2 tumors are usually more aggressive cancers, such as clear cell carcinoma and papillary serous carcinoma. This means that type 2 tumors have a worse prognosis compared to type 1. Overall, studies suggest that type 2 tumors are responsible for more than 45 percent of endometrial cancer deaths.

Age and Overall Health

Studies show that older age can affect your prognosis with advanced endometrial cancer. A study of 1,764 postmenopausal women found that the older they were, the more severe their disease was. Those above age 80 had a five-year survival rate of 46 percent, whereas those under 80 had a five-year survival rate of 77 percent. The older study participants were also more likely to have other health problems, including high blood pressure and a history of colon cancer.

Response to Treatment

Some advanced endometrial cancers respond to treatment better than others. If it looks like your treatment plan may shrink your tumor or slow its growth, your doctor will say you have a good prognosis. This means you may continue living months or years after your diagnosis. A worse treatment response likely means a worse prognosis. Your doctor may recommend trying other medications or procedures to treat your cancer.

Survival Rate Statistics for Endometrial Cancer

Your doctor will likely use survival rates to estimate your prognosis. They’ll compare you to others with the same stage of advanced endometrial cancer. Although these statistics can’t provide your exact outlook, they can help predict whether you may respond to treatment.

The American Cancer Society notes that the five-year relative survival rate for endometrial cancer is 81 percent. The relative survival rate compares people with endometrial cancer to the general population. This means that a person with endometrial cancer is 81 percent as likely to be alive after five years as someone who doesn’t have the disease.

The five-year relative survival rate reported by the American Cancer Society doesn’t use the FIGO staging system. Instead, it follows the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, which breaks cases down into localized, regional, and distant. The five-year relative survival rates for those with regional and distant spread of endometrial cancer are 70 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Emotional Impact of an Advanced Endometrial Cancer Diagnosis

An endometrial cancer diagnosis can put you on a rollercoaster of emotions. It’s normal to feel a mixture of worry, anxiety, and sadness throughout your treatment and as a cancer survivor. Family members and close friends may experience these emotions, too.

Remember, you’re not alone in your cancer diagnosis. Talk with your doctor about mental health and emotional support. They can refer you to professionals and counselors trained to help people living with cancer. Support groups, religious leaders, and others in your life can also lend a helping hand and a listening ear.

Recent Advances in Endometrial Cancer Treatment

Hope is a powerful emotion that fuels many living with advanced endometrial cancer. Doctors and researchers continue to find new ways to treat this disease, with the aim of improving prognosis. Your chances of living a healthy life after your cancer diagnosis are better than ever before.

In 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a few new advanced endometrial cancer treatments. Immunotherapy drugs activate the immune system to fight cancer. The FDA has approved two options, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and durvalumab (Imfinzi), for advanced endometrial cancer. These medications can be combined with chemotherapy or, in some cases, used on their own. The FDA also expanded approval of the drug dostarlimab-gxly (Jemperli) with chemotherapy for more people with advanced endometrial cancer.

Data from clinical trials showed that new immunotherapy drugs helped improve survival in people with certain tumors. This includes progression-free survival — how long a person lives without their cancer growing and spreading.

Other clinical trials are studying advanced endometrial cancer treatments, including:

• Targeted therapies (inhibitors) that block changes or mutations in cancer cells
• Existing medications in new combinations
• New immunotherapies that deliver chemotherapy directly to the tumor
• New approaches for radiation therapy

To learn more about clinical trials or your own treatment plan, talk to your health care provider. They can also answer any questions you have about your prognosis. Working closely with your provider can improve your quality of life with advanced endometrial cancer.

Find Your Team

On MyEndometrialCancerCenter, the site for people with endometrial cancer and their loved ones, people come together to gain a new understanding of endometrial cancer and share their stories with others who understand life with endometrial cancer.

Have you been diagnosed with advanced endometrial cancer? How did you react to your diagnosis? What advice do you have for others going through a similar situation? Share your experiences in the comments below.