Adjuvant chemotherapy vs radiation therapy after radical surgery in high risk positive node stage IB/IIA cervical cancer

Abstract OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the addition of adjuvant chemotherapy will improve the outcomes of high-risk patients with Stage IB, IIA squamous cervical carcinoma with positive pelvic and/or aortic nodes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 127 patients with Stage IB and IIA cervical carcinoma treated with radical hysterectomy and systematic pelvic/aortic lymphadenectomy (RS) and who had lymph node involvement, confirmed at the final histological examination were enrolled from January 1987 to December 2001. All the patients received three cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) with cisplatin, bleomycin and vinblastine. The median patient age was 47.3. Seventy-seven patients had FIGO Stage IB1, 26 IB2 and 24 IIA. The results were compared with those obtained from a group of 136 patients with comparable age, stage and lymph node involvement, on whom radical surgery, systematic pelvic/aortic lymphadenectomy (RS) and adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) was performed on period 1971-1984. The followup period ranged from 7-13 years.RESULTS: Overall survival rate of the two groups (RS+AC) vs (RS+RT) at seven years was 69.3% and 59.5%, respectively (chi2 = 2.70; p = .10). Progression-free survival was 59.8% vs 50.0% (chi2 = 2.56; p = .10 ns). The best results were however obtained with the common iliac and over two lymph node metastases. CONCLUSIONS: Adjuvant chemotherapy in high-risk patients for lymph node positivity did not produce statistically significant results in terms of overall and disease-free survival vs adjuvant radiotherapy; however, a group of these patients, approximately 10%, could receive benefit from the treatment.