[Multidisciplinary therapy after radical surgery in stage I b1-II b cervical cancer patients with positive lymph nodes].

OBJECTIVE: To study the modality of multidisciplinary therapy and prognosis of cervical cancer patients with positive lymph nodes after radical surgery. METHODS: From January 1990 to June 2003, 215 patients with clinical stage I b1-II b node-positive cervical carcinoma who underwent radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy and were histologically confirmed to have lymph node involvement were analyzed. These patients were divided into four groups as chemoradiotherapy group (107 cases), radiotherapy group (45 cases), chemotherapy group (22 cases) and no adjuvant therapy group (41 cases). The prognosis and potential prognostic variables of the four groups were studied by survival analysis. RESULTS: The 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate of the chemoradiotherapy group, chemotherapy group, radiotherapy group and no adjuvant therapy group were 60.7%, 53.5%, 47.4% and 36.0% respectively. The 3-year DFS rate of the chemoradiotherapy group was significantly higher than that of the no adjuvant therapy group (P = 0.001). However, the 3-year DFS rate of the chemotherapy group, radiotherapy group were not significantly higher than that of the no adjuvant therapy group (P = 0.060 and 0.159). Among the four groups, the pelvic recurrent rate of the chemoradiotherapy group (7.5%) was much lower than those of the other three groups (22.7%, 26.7%, 34.1%, respectively; P < 0.01). However, the distant metastases rate did not decrease significantly (16.8%, 18.2%, 15.6%, 22.0%, respectively; P > 0.05), neither did the distant metastasis with pelvic recurrent rate (P > 0.05). COX proportional hazard model analysis showed that tumor size, histological type, the number of positive lymph node and postoperative adjuvant therapy were independent survival predictors of the patients with positive lymph node (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Chemoradiotherapy after radical surgery significantly improves the 3-year DFS, and decreases the pelvic recurrence in the cervical cancer patients with positive lymph node.