Oncologic outcomes of adjuvant chemotherapy alone after radical surgery for stage IB–IIA cervical cancer patients

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the oncologic outcomes of adjuvant chemotherapy (CT) alone after radical surgery. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who underwent type C radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy with or without paraaortic lymphadenectomy for stage IB–IIA cervical cancer from March 2006 to December 2014 at 2 academic medical centers in Korea. Adjuvant CT alone for patients who met the Sedlis criteria or had lymph node (LN) involvement. Chemotherapeutic regimens consisted of either platinum alone or platinum-based combination. RESULTS: A total of 101 consecutive patients were included in the analysis. The median age was 46.0 years (range, 23–73). Seventy-four patients (73.3%) were clinically staged as IB1; 23 and 4 patients as IB2 and IIA, respectively. The median number of retrieved pelvic and paraaortic LNs (PALNs) were 55.0 (range, 16–101) and 10.0 (range, 2–30), respectively. LN involvement was observed in 25 patients (24.8%). After the median follow-up of 65 months, 14 patients (13.9%) developed disease recurrence. In all patients, the estimated 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate and 5-year overall survival (OS) rate were 90.7% and 90.6%, respectively. In patients who met the Sedlis criteria, the 3-year DFS and 5-year OS rates were 94.6% and 90.6%, respectively. Patients with LN metastasis showed a 3-year DFS rate of 79.4% and a 5-year OS rate of 90.6%. CONCLUSION: Adjuvant CT alone could be reasonable option for patients with surgical-pathologic risk factors after radical surgery in stage IB–IIA cervical cancer.