Postoperative management of FIGO 2018 stage IIA1 cervical squamous cell carcinoma with only one intermediate-risk factor: Is radiotherapy needed?

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether postoperative radiotherapy is required for FIGO 2018 stage IIA1 cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients with only one intermediate-risk factor. METHODS: This was a multicenter retrospective study. The selected patients were classified into no postoperative adjuvant therapy and postoperative radiotherapy groups. The 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) rates were compared. RESULTS: In total, 159 patients with no postoperative adjuvant therapy and 179 patients with postoperative radiotherapy were included, with the former group showing a lower OS but no difference in DFS. No postoperative adjuvant therapy was an independent risk factor for patient mortality. Patients were also stratified by tumor diameter: 56 patients had a tumor diameter ≤2 cm, comprising 32 patients with postoperative radiotherapy and 24 patients without (no between-group difference was found); 272 patients had a tumor diameter >2 cm, comprising 122 patients with postoperative radiotherapy and 150 patients without, with the former group showing a higher OS, and no postoperative adjuvant therapy was an independent risk factor for patient mortality. CONCLUSION: For FIGO 2018 stage IIA1 cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients with only one intermediate-risk factor and a tumor diameter >2 cm, postoperative radiotherapy is likely beneficial to improve prognosis.

Comparison of survival outcomes of abdominal radical hysterectomy and radiochemotherapy IIA2 (FIGO2018) cervical cancer: a retrospective study from a large database of 63,926 cases of cervical cancer in China.

AIM: This study aimed to compare the 5-year overall survival (OS) and 5-year DFS disease-free survival (DFS) of abdominal radical hysterectomy (ARH) and radiochemotherapy (R-CT) for stage IIA2 (FIGO 2018) cervical cancer patients. METHODS: Based on this multicenter, retrospective cohort study based on data from the clinical diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer in China (Four C) database, 609 cases with 2018 FIGO stage IIA2 cervical cancer from 2004 to 2018 were reviewed. The 5-year OS and 5-year DFS of patients with either of the two treatment methods were compared by means of a multivariate Cox regression model and the log-rank method in the total study population and after propensity score matching (PSM). RESULTS: We selected 609 of 63,926 patients and found that R-CT was associated with a significantly worse 5-year OS (71.8% vs. 95.3%, P < 0.001; hazard ratio (HR) = 6.596, 95% CI 3.524-12.346) and 5-year DFS (69.4% vs. 91.4%, P < 0.001; HR = 4.132, 95% CI 2.570-6.642, P < 0.001) than ARH in the total study population. After matching (n = 230/230), among FIGO 2018 IIA2 patients, the 5-year OS and DFS were lower in the R-CT group than in the ARH group (OS: 73.9% vs. 94.7%, P < 0.001; HR = 5.633, 95% CI 2.826-11.231, P < 0.001; DFS: 69.2% vs. 91.1%, P < 0.001; HR = 3.978, 95% CI 2.336-6.773, P < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with stage FIGO 2018 IIA2 cervical cancer, ARH offers better 5-year OS and DFS outcomes than R-CT; however, due to the inherent biases of retrospective studies, this needs to be confirmed by randomized trials.

Comparison of laparoscopic and abdominal radical hysterectomy for early stage cervical cancer: oncologic outcomes based on tumor diameter.

BACKGROUND: Early stage cervical cancer is prevalent in China and remains a major public health burden in developing countries. We aimed to determine the long term oncologic outcomes between laparoscopic and abdominal radical hysterectomy in patients with early cervical cancer. METHODS: We conducted a multicenter, retrospective, case-control study of 37 hospitals. All consecutive early stage cervical cancer patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) 2009 stage IA1 with lymphovascular space invasion to IB1, who underwent laparoscopic or abdominal radical hysterectomy between January 2004 and December 2016, were included. We compared the disease free survival and overall survival of the two approaches in 1:1 case-control matched settings based on prognosis related factors. RESULTS: We selected 8470 of 46 313 patients. After matching (n=1601/1601), we found that laparoscopic surgery was associated with significantly worse 5 year disease free survival (89.5% vs 93.1%, p=0.001; hazard ratio (HR) 1.60, p=0.001), but not 5 year overall survival (94.3% vs 96.0%, HR=1.48, p=0.058). In the subgroup analysis, in patients with a tumor diameter <2 cm (n=739/739), both 5 year disease free survival and overall survival were similar between the laparoscopic and abdominal radical hysterectomy groups. However, when tumor diameter was 2-4 cm (n=898/898), laparoscopic surgery was a poor prognosis risk factor for 5 year disease free survival (84.7% vs 90.8%, p=0.001; HR=1.81, p<0.001), but not 5 year overall survival (90.9% vs 93.8%, p=0.077; HR=1.53, p=0.059). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with early cervical cancer, laparoscopic radical hysterectomy was associated with significantly poorer long term oncologic outcome, although in patients with tumors <2 cm, the 5 year overall survival and 5 year disease free survival were similar.