title: Postoperative radiotherapy in carcinoma of the cervix: treatment results and prognostic factors.
abstract: In order to assess the role of postoperative radiotherapy and prognostic factors, 126 patients who were treated with radiotherapy after surgery for clinical early-stage carcinoma of the cervix were reviewed. All patients received external pelvic radiotherapy and 37 patients were treated with additional vaginal cuff irradiation. The 5-year overall survival, disease-free survival and locoregional control rates were 71.1, 69.9 and 78.1%, respectively. The 5-year disease-free survival rates were 40% for grade 3 vs. 75.4% for grade 1 tumours (p = 0.05), 76.5% for pathological stage IB versus 54.1% for pathological stage IIA (p = 0.04), 36.6% for node-positive patients versus 82.5% for node-negative patients (p = 0.0017), 54% for full thickness cervical invasion versus 100% superficial cervical invasion (p = 0.01), 34.8% for positive margins versus 78.1 for negative margins (p < 0.0001). After a multivariate analysis, tumour grade (p = 0.026) and presence of positive margins (p = 0.006) were found to independently influence the outcome. Grade II and III complication rate was 5.5% in all patients. In conclusion, postoperative radiotherapy should be used in patients treated with simple hysterectomy as well as those treated with radical hysterectomy with unfavorable pathological findings.
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D001918:Brachytherapy; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000473:pathology; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008679:Metaplasia / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000453:epidemiology; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual; D011379:Prognosis; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D011882:Radiotherapy, High-Energy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery