Tumour vascularity is a significant prognostic factor for cervix carcinoma treated with radiotherapy: independence from tumour radiosensitivity

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between intrinsic radiosensitivity and vascularity in carcinoma of the cervix given radiotherapy, and assess whether more refined prognostic information can be gained by combining the two parameters. A retrospective study was carried out on 74 patients with locally advanced carcinoma of the cervix. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumour biopsies were stained with anti-factor VIII using immunohistochemistry. Vascularity was scored using the intra-tumour microvessel density (IMD), or ‘hot-spot’, technique. For the same patients, the measurement of intrinsic radiosensitivity (SF2) had been made previously on the same pretherapy samples. Patients were stratified by the median IMD and SF2 scores. Women with radioresistant and highly vascular tumours had poorer 5-year survival (P = 0.0005, P = 0.035 respectively) and local control (P = 0.012, P = 0.077 respectively) than those with radiosensitive and poorly vascular tumours. No significant correlation was seen between IMD and SF2. Multivariate analysis (including tumour stage and patient age) showed that only SF2 and IMD were significant prognostic factors for survival. Patients with both a radioresistant and highly vascular tumour had a 5-year survival level of 18% compared to 77% for those patients with a radiosensitive and poorly vascularized tumour. Tumour angiogenesis and cellular radiosensitivity are independent prognostic factors for cervix carcinoma treated with radiotherapy. Allowing for tumour radiosensitivity increases the prognostic significance of vascularity measurements in cervix tumours. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign