Abstract:Objective To study the correlation between positive peritoneal lavage cytology and lymph node metastasis in early endometrial cancer. Methods The clinical and pathological data of endometrial cancer patients who accepted surgical pathological staging in our hospital from 2010 to 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 10 patients (3.4%) had positive peritoneal lavage cytology (PPC group) and 284 had negative peritoneal lavage cytology (NPC group). For statistical analysis, Chi-square test and logistic regression model were used. Results Lymph node metastasis rate in the PPC group was significantly higher than that in the NPC group, regardless of histopathological types (P < 0.05). Adjusting other influencing factors in the multivariable model, positive peritoneal cytology was still an independent risk factor for lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). Conclusions Endometrial cancer patients with positive peritoneal cytology are at high risk of lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis. Although peritoneal fluid cytology is no longer one of the FIGO endometrial cancer staging criteria, it still plays an important role in the process of clinical decision-making.