Therapeutic implications of the natural history of advanced cervical cancer as defined by pretreatment surgical staging

Abstract

From 1978 to 1983, 112 women with advanced cervical carcinomas received radiotherapy after pretreatment surgical staging. Five‐year actuarial relapse‐free survival rates were a strong function of lymphatic spread: 40% with periaortic node metastases, 50% with pelvic node metastases, and 84% without node metastases. Primary treatment failure had a distant component in 75% of recurrences (50% of recurrences with negative nodes and 85% of recurrences with positive nodes). It was concluded that adjuvant systemic therapy is necessary to substantially raise the probability of cure.