Comparison of adjuvant chemotherapy and radiation in patients with intermediate risk factors after radical surgery in FIGO stage IB–IIA cervical cancer

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the outcome of chemotherapy or radiation as adjuvant therapy for patients with FIGO stage IB-IIA cervical cancer and surgically confirmed intermediate risk factors. Data were collected from patients with uterine cervical cancer FIGO stage IB-IIA who had adjuvant chemotherapy following radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection (RHLND, cases) or adjuvant radiotherapy following RHLND (controls). The study groups consisted of 38 cases and 42 controls. Adjuvant treatment was given to the patients with a combination of intermediate risk factors including deep stromal invasion (>50%), lymphvascular space invasion, large tumor size (3-6 cm), or close vaginal resection margin (<1 cm). Comparison of the cases with the controls revealed no significant differences in variables studied including median age (P = 0.18), stage distribution (P = 0.30), histologic subtype (P = 0.93), pathologic tumor size (P = 0.46), depth of the stromal invasion (P = 0.29), lymphvascular space invasion (P = 0.50), and close vaginal resection margin (P = 0.62). The difference in disease-free survival rates was not significant (P = 0.68). However, the overall survival analysis was incomplete due to the limited number of events available at the end of the study period. The findings of this study suggest that adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with FIGO stage IB-IIA uterine cervical cancer and surgically confirmed intermediate risk factors may be effective.