Small FIGO stage IB cervical cancer.

The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) currently defines stage IA cervical cancer as lesions invading up to 5 mm into the stroma and with no more than 7 mm width; vascular invasion does not affect the stage assignment. The Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) definition of stage IA is more restrictive with regard to depth of invasion but ignores width. We reviewed 69 patients with lesions exceeding the FIGO definition of stage IA treated between 1958 and 1991; 46 patients also exceeded the SGO criteria for stage IA. The frequency of vascular invasion showed no correlation with the depth of invasion but was correlated with the width of the lesion. Treatment consisted of conization or simple hysterectomy only (n = 27), radical abdominal hysterectomy with lymphadenectomy (n = 25), radical vaginal hysterectomy (n = 13), and conization followed by radiotherapy (n = 4). No patient developed a recurrence during a follow-up of 2-35 years. Two of the 25 patients with lymphadenectomy had one positive lymph node each. The first patient had a primary lesion with 3 mm invasion and 17 mm width, no vascular invasion, and one node metastasis 2 mm in diameter; the second had a lesion with 4 mm invasion and 10 mm width, vascular invasion, and a tumor-cell embolus in the marginal sinus of a node. These results indicate that the problems involved in treating microinvasive carcinoma of the cervix also apply to cases of small stage IB disease. It will not be possible to devise a staging system that simultaneously serves as a guideline for treatment. The current FIGO classification of stage IA2 should be expanded rather than restricted.

Results of surgical treatment of 1028 cervical cancers studied with volumetry.

BACKGROUND AND METHODS: The clinical staging system of cervical cancer according to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) entails a large measure of subjectivity. This study analyzed the results of 1028 patients with cervical cancer at three reference centers. All patients had radical surgery, and all surgical specimens were processed as histologic giant sections with precise volumetry of the tumor. RESULTS: The interpretation of the histologic findings of parametrial invasion, vascular involvement, and lymph node involvement was found to differ somewhat among the three centers. However, all these findings were associated with tumor size. Survival rates correlated more consistently with tumor volume than with clinical or histologic stage. Five-year survival rates ranged from 91% for patients with tumors smaller than 2.5 cm3 to 70% for those with tumors 10-50 cm3. The 5-year survival rate of 24 patients with tumors larger than 50 cm3 (71% of whom had lymph nodes with positive findings) was 48%. Survival rates were identical among the three centers for patients with tumors smaller than 10 cm3, despite different degrees of surgical radicality. In contrast, more radical surgery was associated with significantly better survival rates in patients with larger tumors. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that volumetry of the tumor permits a more accurate assessment of therapeutic results in patients with cervical cancer than does the FIGO classification. Pretherapeutic assessment of tumor volume is possible with magnetic resonance imaging. It seems that maximum parametrial resection is not necessary for patients with smaller tumors (smaller than 10 cm3), but truly radical surgery in patients with bulky tumors achieves better results than those usually expected in Stage IIb cervical cancer and at least comparable to those of radiation therapy.

Patterns of pelvic and paraaortic lymph node involvement in ovarian cancer.

One hundred eighty patients with ovarian cancer underwent complete pelvic lymphadenectomy (n = 75) or pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy (n = 105). Twenty-one patients underwent a preoperative biopsy of the scalene lymph nodes. The incidence of positive lymph nodes was 24% in stage I (n = 37), 50% in stage II (n = 14), 74% in stage III (n = 114), and 73% in stage IV (n = 15). Of the 105 patients who underwent pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy, 13 (12%) had positive pelvic and negative paraaortic nodes and 10 (9%) had positive paraaortic and negative pelvic nodes. Positive scalene nodes were found in four patients (19%) later shown to have stage IV disease. One hundred forty patients were studied for number of involved nodes and node groups, size of nodal metastases, residual tumor, and survival. Of the 81 patients with positive nodes, most had only one or two positive node groups or one to three positive individual nodes. A few patients had seven to eight involved node groups with up to 44 positive nodes. Greater numbers of positive nodes were found in stage III than stage IV. The size of the largest nodal metastasis was not related to the clinical stage or survival, but did correlate with the number of positive nodes. Stage III patients with no residual tumor had a significantly lower rate of lymph node involvement than those with tumor residual (P less than 0.01). Actuarial 5-year survival rates of patients with stage III disease and no, one, or more than one positive nodes were 69, 58, and 28%, respectively.

Microinvasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Stage IA).

In 1985 the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) subdivided Stage IA cervical cancer and specified metric criteria to demarcate Stage IA from Stage IB. Early stromal invasion (Stage IA1) denotes the first invasive protrusions of a carcinoma in situ into the stroma. Microcarcinomas (Stage IA2) are small cancers a number of orders of magnitude larger than Stage IA1 lesions and with a maximum depth of invasion of 5 mm and a maximum horizontal spread of 7 mm; larger lesions are classified as Stage IB. This study reviews 486 patients previously classified as having Stage IA disease. This yielded 344 Stage IA1 and 101 Stage IA2 lesions; 41 cancers were reclassified as Stage IB. Three hundred nine, 89, and 38 patients were followed for greater than or equal to 5 years. One (0.3%) patient with Stage IA1 disease re-presented with Stage IIB disease 12 years after conization. Five (5.6%) patients with Stage IA2 lesions developed invasive recurrences; three died. None of the 38 patients reclassified as having a Stage IB lesion, including 16 who were treated conservatively, developed a recurrence. The FIGO classification is not a guideline for treatment. Stage IA1 lesions can be treated conservatively, but treatment in Stage IA2 must be individualized. Risk factors such as vascular space involvement and confluency are of high sensitivity but low specificity.

[The surgical treatment of ovarian cancer]. / Die operative Behandlung des Ovarialkarzinoms.

Between 1980 and 1988, 350 women suffering from ovarian cancer stage I-IV were admitted to the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of the University of Graz. 320 patients underwent surgery, 174 of 175 with stage III disease, 95 patients had a pelvic lymphadenectomy and 76 both pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy. During the last 4 years, 75% of all patients with stage III disease underwent lymphadenectomy; in 30% the abdomen could be completely cleared of the disease. Bowel resection was necessary in 29% of these patients. After surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, actuarial 5-year survival was 80% in stage I, 65% in stage II. and 45% in stage III. Lymph node status and amount of residual tumour were the most important factors affecting survival. After pelvic lymphadenectomy 23% patients of stage III showed no evidence of disease (NED) after 5 years. If there was no residual tumour at primary surgery, survival with NED increased to 62% and to 71% in patients with negative pelvic nodes. The data indicates, that pelvic lymphadenectomy improved the 5-year survival of patients with stage II-IV ovarian cancer.

[Radical surgery in gynecologic cancers]. / Operative Radikalität bei gynäkologischen Karzinomen.

The issue of surgical radicality in patients with gynecologic cancers is not seen as clearly elsewhere as it is in Austria. Systematic extirpation of the affected organ and the complete attendant lymphatic tissue can lead to excellent results. In patients with stage IIb cervical cancer, especially those with positive para-aortic nodes, surgery produces better survival rates than radiotherapy. In ovarian cancer, systemic lymphadenectomy has led to a sudden increase in survival and cure rates.

[Obstetrics in Graz. A comparison 1887-1987]. / Geburtshilfe in Graz. Ein Vergleich 1887-1987.

We compared obstetric data from the archives in Graz for 1887 with those of 1987. In 1887, 85% of all deliveries took place in the home or with a midwife--compared with only 0.46% in 1987. Maternal mortality in 1887 was 0.75%; two-thirds of the deaths occurred in the puerperium. Perinatal mortality was 11.0% in 1887 and 1.03% in 1987. The intrauterine fetal death rate, including deaths during delivery, was 6.7% and 0.35%, respectively; 2.7% versus 0.26% were macerated. The percentage of stillbirths among unwed mothers is higher today than in 1887. Perinatal mortality in 1887 was frequently associated with prematurity, abnormal presentations, and operative vaginal deliveries. 14.4% of the children of multiple pregnancies died in utero or during delivery. In 1987, 83% of mothers were bearing their first or second child, as compared with 50% in 1887. Grand multiparae were much more common in 1887. The percentage of mothers under 20 years old is twice as high today as 100 years ago.

Magnetic resonance imaging in cervical cancer: a basis for objective classification.

Conventional clinical staging of cervical cancer is subjective because it is based on palpatory findings and inadequate because it cannot assess the single most important prognostic factor--tumor size. To determine the exactitude of in vivo MRI measurements of tumor volume, 22 patients with invasive cervical cancer were studied before surgery. The volumes obtained by MRI correlated well (r = 0.983) with those obtained by histomorphometric analysis of the surgical specimens, but only weakly with clinical stage. MRI may provide a basis for precise classification of cervical cancer and for objective comparison of surgery and radiotherapy.

The significance of pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy in the operative treatment of ovarian cancer.

Since 1980, 95 of 320 patients with ovarian cancer of Stages I to IV have undergone pelvic lymphadenectomy. A further 57 patients underwent pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy. In the last three years, 83% of patients with Stage III disease had a lymphadenectomy, and 34% had no gross residual tumour after surgery. This entailed bowel resection in 33% of cases. After cytoreduction and chemotherapy, actuarial 5-year survival in Stages I and II was 90%, and was just over 40% in Stage III. Patients with positive nodes had markedly poorer survival than did those with negative nodes. Three years after only pelvic lymphadenectomy, 36.7% of patients with Stage III disease had no clinical, radiological or biochemical evidence of disease. If the abdomen had been cleared of gross disease at surgery, 70% of the patients had no evidence of disease at 3 years. The therapeutic effect of lymphadenectomy is also reflected in the marked improvement in survival of all patients with Stage III ovarian cancer after the introduction of lymphadenectomy.

The effect of chemotherapy on lymph node metastases in ovarian cancer.

Twenty-six patients with ovarian cancer underwent pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy at second-look or third-look surgery after complete chemotherapy. The frequency of positive nodes (65.3%) was the same as that found at primary lymphadenectomy. Patients who had received cisplatin had the same frequency of positive nodes as those who had received a schedule which lacked cisplatin. Node involvement was not associated with tumour residual after primary surgery. Survival was strongly associated with nodal status. A difference in survival among patients who underwent primary lymphadenectomy could not be demonstrated. Of all gynaecological malignancies, ovarian cancer has the highest rate of positive retroperitoneal nodes. Chemotherapy, even with cisplatin, seems to have no effect on tumour deposits in the nodes. It cannot be assumed that a cure is possible if disease persists in the lymph nodes after chemotherapy, even if the abdomen has been cleared by radical primary surgery. Thus, cytoreduction should encompass the retroperitoneal space, and lymphadenectomy should be an integral component of the operative treatment of ovarian cancer.

[Early forms of ovarian cancer--are there borderline tumors?]. / Frühe Formen des Ovarialkarzinoms--gibt es Borderline-Tumore?

The early development of ovarian cancer remains unclear. Inclusion cysts or papillary excrescences of the germinal epithelium probably play a role. After a preinvasive stage, these lesions undergo secondary malignant transformation. The issue of borderline tumors is made complicated by diagnostic imprecision and by the fact that the peritoneal epithelium can develop autonomous tumors that look like metastases.

Magnetic resonance imaging in clinical cervical cancer: pretherapeutic tumour volumetry.

MRI can define the spread, size, and volume of clinical cervical cancers. Appropriate pulse sequences and slice thicknesses are necessary. Twenty-five patients underwent MRI tumour volumetry before radical hysterectomy. The volume obtained by MRI was compared with that obtained from the histological giant sections; the volumes agreed at a statistically significant correlation coefficient of 0.983. The volumes obtained by MRI of 13 unfixed surgical specimens correlated with their histological volumes with a statistically significant coefficient of 0.894. Tumour volumes were compared with the respective clinical stages. Clinical stage did not correlate with tumour volume. Three very large tumours were in clinical Stage Ib. Tumour size is a major prognostic factor, can be measured easily, and, as the basis for classification, is superior to FIGO staging. MRI can measure tumour volume before treatment.

The significance of the parametrium in the operative treatment of cervical cancer.

The first sharp improvement in the operative treatment of cervical cancer was the shifting of the plane of resection away from the tumour into the parametria. This permitted resection of the primary cancer with a margin of healthy tissue. Systematic studies of excised parametrial tissue, carried out around the turn of the century, showed four types of parametrial involvement: continuous, discontinuous, carcinomatosis of the parametrial lymphatics, and parametrial lymph node involvement. It is well known that histologically demonstrated parametrial involvement often contradicts the clinical stage. So-called staging laparotomies are meant to address this problem but they, too, are inadequate since most parametrial cancer deposits are microscopic and cannot be palpated. In our own studies of totally extirpated parametria, contiguous cancer spread into the parametria never exceeded 10 mm, not even in the largest still-operable tumours. Thus the theory of contiguous, direct cancer spread to the pelvic wall is wrong. Parametrial involvement usually occurred as cancer deposits in the rarely mentioned parametrial lymph nodes. Parametrial involvement correlates better with the size of the primary tumour, expressed as the tumour-cervix quotient, than with the clinical stage. The smallest tumours, without showing continuous parametrial involvement, had a 3.4% incidence of positive nodes. Thirty-five per cent of the patients with the largest tumours had positive parametrial nodes. Parametrial lymph nodes were found in 280 (78%) of 359 surgical specimens processed as giant sections. Sixty-three patients (22.5%) had positive parametrial nodes. The nodes at the pelvic wall were involved in 80% of the patients with positive parametrial nodes. The five-year survival rate was 84% if the parametria were free of disease, but it dropped to 53% with any type of parametrial involvement. Survival rates did not differ much if only the parametrial nodes or only the pelvic nodes were positive (56% and 66%, respectively). However, if both groups were positive survival dropped to 43.1%. Positive parametrial nodes can be located anywhere in the parametrium; therefore, surgery must remove the entire structure. It remains to be seen whether an exception can be made for small Stage Ib tumours, or if lymphadenectomy can be omitted in these patients. If so, radical vaginal surgery may be the treatment of choice.

Objective results of the operative treatment of cervical cancer.

Surgical staging of cervical cancer samples the retroperitoneal lymph nodes and, at some centres, the parametria. While better than subjective clinical staging, its value is limited because the results of a sampling procedure differ widely from those of a systematic lymphadenectomy. Additionally, considering the pathology of parametrial involvement, it seems unlikely that biopsy can find the majority of parametrial cancer deposits. The most precise data on the spread of cervical cancer are produced by radical hysterectomy and systematic lymhadenectomy. The tumour size has proven to be the most important prognostic criterion and therefore the best suited for patient classification. Tumour size can be measured by a number of methods. Between 1971 and 1987, 583 of 867 patients with Stage Ib to IIb cervical cancer underwent surgical treatment. Lymphadenectomy was systematic and hysterectomy included the resection of the entire parametria at the pelvic wall. In a total of 359 serial giant sections were of sufficient quality for evaluation; most were Stage IIb cases. The frequency of positive pelvic lymph nodes was 30.3% among 132 Stage Ib cases and 44.7% among Stage IIb cases. Most tumours occupied over 40% of the cervical volume. Five-year survival by clinical stage failed to show a statistically significant difference between Stages Ib and IIb. Objective classification by tumour size showed the patients with the smallest tumours to have a five-year survival rate of 92.1%. The patients with the largest still-operable tumours occupying 80% to 100% or more of the cervix still had a five-year survival rate of 65%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)