Posttherapy residual disease associates with long-term survival after chemoradiation for bulky stage 1 B cervical carcinoma: a Gynecologic Oncology Group study

Abstract

The objective of the study was to study posttherapy chemoradiation hysterectomy histology with long-term survival in bulky stage 1(B) cervical cancer patients. Gynecologic Oncology Group protocols 71 and 123 enrolled 464 patients randomly allocated to pelvic radiation (75 Gy, n = 291) plus hysterectomy (RTH) or to pelvic radiation (75 Gy) and cisplatin (40 mg/m(2), n = 176) plus hysterectomy (RTCH). Risk of progression and death were evaluated by posttherapy hysterectomy response (good: <10% viable; poor: ≥10% viable). Median survivor follow-up was 112 months. Relative risks of disease progression and death were 0.656 (95% confidence interval, 0.472-0.912) and 0.638 (95% confidence interval, 0.449-0.908), favoring RTCH. Good response patients (345; 74%) had similar 10 year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) after RTH or RTCH (P > .47). Poor response patients after RTCH had superior OS (P = .046) and PFS (P = .084). Extrapelvic recurrences occurred more often in poor response patients. Posttherapy viable residual disease less than 10% was associated with reduced risk of progression and cancer-related death.