Outcomes and toxicities for the treatment of stage IVB cervical cancer

Abstract

The prognosis of stage IVB cervical cancer is generally poor. In the current study, treatment outcomes were evaluated in patients with International Federation of Gynecologic Oncology stage IVB cervical cancer treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy for progression-free survival (PFS) and treated-related toxicities. The medical records of the patients with stage IVB cervical cancer who were treated at the National Cancer Center, South Korea were reviewed retrospectively. From February 2002 to February 2010, 45 patients were diagnosed with FIGO stage IVB cervical cancer. Survival and toxicities were compared between the 13 patients with concomitant chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with weekly cisplatin versus 20 patients with CCRT with 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin. Initial treatment included weekly cisplatin-CCRT, 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin-CCRT, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and radiotherapy with subsequent combination chemotherapy in 13, 20, 4, and 5 patients, respectively. Overall survival (OS) and PFS were 26.2 and 6.7 months, respectively. There was no statistical difference in OS (p = 0.47) and PFS (p = 0.64) between the weekly cisplatin-CCRT and 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin-CCRT groups; however, the incidence of anemia >grade 3 as an acute toxicity was higher in the 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin-CCRT chemotherapy regimen group than the weekly cisplatin-CCRT group (p = 0.03). Acute toxicity >grade 2 showed a tendency to be higher in the 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin-CCRT group. Based on multivariate analysis, poor performance status was the only independent prognostic factor of OS (p = 0.03, 9.77; 95% CI 1.3-73.3) and PFS (p = 0.04, 9.58; 95% CI 1.14-81.26). CCRT using combination chemotherapeutic agents may not have survival advantage over single agent cisplatin-based CCRT. Further improvement in treatment is needed to increase survival outcomes and to decrease treatment-related toxicities in patients with stage IVB cervical cancer.