RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor tissue. Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. It is not yet known if radiation therapy is more effective with or without combination chemotherapy for endometrial cancer.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of radiation therapy with or without combination chemotherapy following surgery in treating patients who have stage I or stage II endometrial cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Compare the relapse-free survival in patients with stage I or II endometrial cancer treated with adjuvant radiotherapy with or without cisplatin and paclitaxel after total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy.
• Compare the patterns of recurrence and the acute and late toxicity profiles associated with these treatment regimens in this patient population.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to disease stage (IC-IIA vs IIB). Patients are randomized to one of two treatment arms.

• Arm I: Within 8 weeks after surgery, patients receive radiotherapy once daily 5 days a week for 5.5 weeks.
• Arm II: Within 8 weeks after surgery, patients receive radiotherapy as in arm I concurrently with cisplatin IV over 2-4 hours on days 1 and 28. After completion of radiotherapy, patients receive paclitaxel IV over 3 hours followed by cisplatin IV over 2-4 hours on days 56, 84, 112, and 140.

Patients are followed every 3 months for 1 year, every 6 months for 3 years, and then annually thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 436 patients (218 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Histologically confirmed uterine confined endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma with one of the following:

  • Grade 2 or 3 carcinoma with more than 50% myometrial invasion (stage IC and IIA)
  • Grade 2 or 3 carcinoma with stromal invasion of the cervix (stage IIB)

• No grade I adenocarcinoma

• Less than 50% papillary serous or clear cell histology on pathologic specimen

• Prior hysterectomy (total abdominal, vaginal hysterectomy, or laparoscopic-assisted vaginal hysterectomy) and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy with or without additional surgical staging for endometrial cancer no more than 8 weeks prior to study

• No known metastatic extrauterine metastases, known gross residual disease, positive peritoneal cytology, or distant metastases

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

Age:

• 18 and over

Performance status:

• Zubrod 0-1

Life expectancy:

• Not specified

Hematopoietic:

• Absolute neutrophil count at least 1,800/mm^3
• Platelet count at least 100,000/mm^3
• Hemoglobin at least 10 g/dL

Hepatic:

• Bilirubin no greater than 1.5 times normal
• SGOT no greater than 3 times normal

Renal:

• Creatinine no greater than 1.5 mg/dL

Cardiovascular:

• No cardiac dysrhythmias

Other:

• No other malignancy within the past 5 years except nonmelanomatous skin cancer
• No medical contraindications to study therapy

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

• Not specified

Chemotherapy:

• No prior chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

• Not specified

Radiotherapy:

• No prior radiotherapy

Surgery:

• See Disease Characteristics