Clinical effects and prognosis of radiotherapy for early cervical cancer patients with postoperative lymph node metastasis / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To retrospectively analyze the prognosis and related risk factors of lymph node metastasis in early-stage (Ⅰ B-Ⅱ A) cervical cancer patients with postoperative positive lymph nodes who were treated with intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted for 292 early-stage cervical cancer patients with postoperative high and/or moderate risk factors who were treated with pelvic-abdominal IMRT with/without concurrent chemotherapy in Ningxia Medical University General Hospital from January 2016 to December 2018. These patients included 239 with negative pelvic lymph nodes and 53 with positive lymph nodes, who were incorporated into the negative group and the positive group, respectively. Multivariate and univariate analyses of the risk factors of lymph node metastasis and prognosis were performed for both groups.Results:The univariate and multivariate analyses showed that the lesion ≥4 cm, deep interstitial invasion, and the number of risk factors were independent factors influencing pelvic lymph node metastasis ( χ2 = 7.11, 9.05, 90.08, P < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the 3- and 5-year OS ( P>0.05) between both groups. The 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) and 5-year DFS of the negative group were 87.6% and 84.5%, respectively, and those of the positive group were 72.5% and 69.3%, respectively ( χ2=8.59, P=0.003). Regarding failure modes, distant metastasis mainly occurred in the positive group, while local recurrence was dominant in the negative group ( χ2=9.40, P<0.05). The univariate analysis of the DFS in 53 patients with postoperative positive lymph nodes showed that deep interstitial invasion affected DFS, with statistically significant differences ( χ2 = 7.25, P < 0.05). The result of the multivariate analysis showed that the lesion size >4 cm, positive residual, and deep interstitial invasion significantly influenced the DFS ( χ2 = 4.37, 4.69, 4.39, P < 0.05). Conclusions:The lesion size, deep interstitial invasion, and risk factor number were independent factors influencing lymph node metastasis, and the DFS after radiotherapy of patients with pelvic lymph node metastasis was significantly lower than the patients with negative lymph nodes. The main recurrence type of patients with lymph node metastasis was distant metastasis. Moreover, the deep interstitial invasion was independent factor affecting the DFS of early-stage cervical cancer patients with postoperative positive lymph nodes.