title: Lymphovascular and perineural invasion in the parametria: a prognostic factor for early-stage cervical cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the impact of parametrial lymphovascular and perineural involvement on nodal metastasis and failure pattern of women with early-stage, surgically treated cervical cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinical records and pathologic slides of 93 patients with early-stage cervical cancer (2 IA2, 52 IB1, 31 IB2, and 8 IIA) treated with radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy with or without paraaortic lymphadenectomy were reviewed. The study group comprised 80 patients with squamous cell carcinoma and 13 patients with adenocarcinoma of the cervix. Median follow-up time was 33 months. The association among the various histopathologic predictors of outcome was determined with chi2 analysis. The influence of the predictors on outcome was examined with log rank survival methods and the Cox regression model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The presence of parametrial lymphovascular space invasion is a predictor of disease in the pelvic (P<.001) and paraaortic (P<.05) lymphatics independently. Large tumor size (greater than 4 cm), parametrial perineural invasion, cervical lymphovascular space invasion, and tumor depth (greater than two thirds) were found to be simultaneous predictors of recurrence on multivariate analysis (P<.05). Using these four binary predictor variables, we have computed a model-based relative risk. Based on this model, the presence of perineural invasion in the parametria more than doubles the risk of recurrence in the cohort of patients with large (greater than 4 cm) tumors (P<.05). In a subset analysis of patients with negative nodal disease, parametrial perineural invasion and tumor size were independent predictors of poor outcome (P<.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Presence of parametrial lymphovascular space invasion correlates significantly with the risk of nodal metastasis in women with early-stage cervical cancer. Parametrial perineural invasion is an independent poor prognostic factor. Histopathologic findings within the parametria are a valuable independent predictor of recurrence and thus may influence the selection of patients for adjuvant treatment.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1740, USA. smemarzadeh@mednet.ucla.edu
authors.forename: Sanaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Memarzadeh
authors.forename: Sathima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Natarajan
authors.forename: Dipika P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Dandade
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ostrzega
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Saber
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Busuttil
authors.forename: Scott E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Lentz
authors.forename: Jonathan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Berek
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007044:Hysterectomy; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology*; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery