Adjuvant hysterectomy following primary chemoradiation for stage IB2 and IIA2 cervical cancer: a retrospective comparison of complications for open versus minimally invasive surgery

Background

Adjuvant hysterectomy following chemoradiation for bulky, early stage cervical cancer has been shown to decrease local relapse rate. The objective of this study is to compare complications and recurrences between minimally invasive and open adjuvant hysterectomy for early stage cervical cancer.

Methods

Patients were identified who had undergone adjuvant hysterectomy following chemoradiation for 2009 FIGO stage IB2 and IIA2 cervical cancer from August 2006 to June 2018. Demographic information, treatment course, complications, recurrence data were retrospectively extracted from the medical record. Frequency of complications was compared with Fisher exact test or chi-square test as appropriate and inverse probability of treatment propensity score weighting was used to calculate the disease-free survival.

Results

Fifty-four patients met inclusion criteria with a median follow up time of 60.4 months (interquartile range 28.0–98.1 months). There were 24 (44%) open versus 30 (56%) minimally invasive hysterectomies performed. The overall grade 2 or worse complication rate was 43%. There were 8 (27%) patients with complications in the minimally invasive group compared to 4 (17%) in the open group (OR 1.82 (95% CI 0.5–7.0)). There were 9 vaginal cuff defects, dehiscences and/or fistulas in the minimally invasive group compared to 3 in the open group (OR 3.0 (95% CI 0.8–11.2)). There was no statistically significant difference between disease free survival and overall survival among the two groups, however there was a trend towards decreased disease-free survival in the minimally invasive group.

Conclusions

Among women undergoing adjuvant hysterectomy following chemoradiation for bulky, early stage cervical cancer, there was no difference in complication rates between an open or minimally invasive surgical approach. However, the overall complication rate was high, including a high rate of vaginal cuff defect, dehiscence and/or fistulas. Our findings suggest that an adjuvant hysterectomy should be reserved for patients in which chemoradiation is not anticipated to successfully treat the primary tumor and, if performed, an open approach should be considered.

Adjuvant hysterectomy after radiochemotherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer

BACKGROUND

External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) with concomitant chemotherapy (cCT) (=RCT) plus intracavitary (±interstitial) brachytherapy (iBT) is standard of care for advanced cervical cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate morbidity and survival outcome of simple adjuvant hysterectomy (AH) after EBRT/cCT and to compare it with the standard treatment.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Patients with FIGO stage III cervical cancer were treated with EBRT/cCT and then divided in two groups: group 1 was further treated with standard intracavitary/interstitial BT, while group 2 underwent AH.

RESULTS

From 881 women with cervical cancer, 248 were eligible for analysis: 161 received iBT and 87 underwent AH. The median follow-up of the study was 53 months. Clinical and pathological characteristics were well balanced in the two groups. After EBRT/cCT, complete clinical response was observed in 121 (48.8%) of 246 patients. Clinical complete response was observed in 81 (50.3%) of 161 patients in group 1. At 6 weeks after EBRT/cCT, 40 (46.0%) of 87 patients in the surgery group had pathological complete response. Intra- and postoperative complications were observed in 10 (11.5%) of 87 cases. The rates of locoregional recurrence and metastasis were similar in both groups. Progression-free (PFS) and disease-specific overall survival (DOS) for these patients were similar between the control and surgery group. Interestingly, PFS and DOS were significantly improved by AH for the patients with residual tumor.

CONCLUSION

AH could improve survival in patients with residual disease after RCT and is characterized by a low complication rate.

Concurrent chemoradiation versus radiotherapy alone for the treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer in a low-resource setting

Our goal was to determine the clinical treatment response following radiation administered with or without chemotherapy for locally advanced cervical cancers in Honduras. This is a retrospective study of patients treated with either concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT) or external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) alone at a hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. 70 Gy of EBRT to the pelvis was given in all cases. Brachytherapy was not available. Chemotherapy was given when available. Extrafascial hysterectomy was performed 6 weeks after completion of treatment in patients with a complete clinical response (cCR). Records for 165 women with locally advanced cervical cancer were reviewed; 25 (15.2%) stage IB2, 15 (9.1%) stage IIA, 90 (54.5%) stage IIB, and 35 (21.2%) stage IIIB. Ninety (54.5%) patients received EBRT alone; 75 (45.5%) received CCRT. Twenty-three (33.3%) of CCRT patients received weekly cisplatin, the remainder receiving other agents. Seventy (77.8%) of the 90 patients who received EBRT had a cCR; 25 out of 75 (33.3%) patients in the CCRT group achieved a cCR. The CCRT group treated with weekly cisplatin achieved an 80% cCR; while the CCRT group given alternative agents had only a 31% cCR. Patients unable to receive platinum-based CCRT had the worst outcome, and their responses were inferior to patients who received EBRT. The challenges of treating women with locally advanced cervical cancer in a low-resource setting are multifactorial and include treatment delays, the lack of brachytherapy and the unpredictable availability of chemotherapy.

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The treatment of cervical cancer in low-resource settings is challenging.

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Among our patients, those unable to receive platinum-based CCRT had worse outcomes.

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Treatment delays, due to unavailability of cisplatin, led to worse outcomes.

The Role of Adjuvant Hysterectomy After Radiotherapy in Cervical Cancer

The aim of this study was to evaluate the morbidity and survival outcome following radical hysterectomy after chemoradiotherapy in the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stages IB-IIB cervical cancer patients in whom intracavitory brachytherapy was not feasible. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of our patients who underwent adjuvant radical hysterectomy between January 2005 and December 2012. Post-operative complications were graded according to the grading system of Chassagne et al. (Radiother Oncol 26:195-202, 1993). Survival analysis was done using Kaplan-Meir method. Between January 2005 and December 2012, 43 patients underwent type 2 radical hysterectomy after external beam radiotherapy and concurrent chemotherapy. The median age of the study group was 44 years (range 28-63 years). There were no perioperative deaths. In the early post-operative period, there were 45 complications in 29 patients of which three were of grade 3 severity. The most common post operative complications were urinary tract infections and lymphoedema. The median follow-up time was 29 months (range 9-68 months). The 5-year overall survival was 85.5 % and disease-free survival 82.1 %. This study shows that radical hysterectomy is feasible with good survival outcome and acceptable morbidity after chemoradiotherapy in cervical cancer patients.