Abstract
To determine whether adjuvant chemoradiation (CRT) with weekly cisplatin improves recurrence-free survival (RFS) compared to radiation (RT) in pathologically proven intermediate risk early-stage cervical cancer following radical hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy.
Post-surgical patients with Stage I-IIA cervical cancer with pathologically noted intermediate risk factors including combinations of capillary lymphatic space (CLS) involvement, stromal invasion, and tumor size were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either adjuvant CRT or RT (NCT01101451). Patients received conformal RT, or Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy. In the CRT arm, 6 weekly cycles of cisplatin 40 mg/m2 was administered during RT. RFS was the primary endpoint in randomized and eligible patients. Secondary endpoints included overall survival (OS), quality of life (QOL), and adverse events (AE).
Of the 340 randomized patients, 316 were eligible and most had FIGO (2009) stage IB1 and squamous cell carcinoma histology. 292 of 316 (92.4%) patients received 28 fractions of RT with a median dose of 50.4 Gy and a median treatment duration of 39 days. Three-year RFS was 88.5% in the CRT arm and 85.4% in the RT arm. Both RFS [hazard ratio (HR) 0.698, 95% CI 0.408-1.192, p=0.09] as well as OS [HR 0.586, 95% CI: 0.286-1.199, p = 0.07] favored CRT compared to RT alone. Grade 3 or 4 AEs occurred in 43% and 15% in the CRT and RT arms, respectively (p < 0.01). A transient decline in QOL occurred in the CRT arm compared to RT after starting treatments and recovered to pre-treatment level by 36 weeks.
Although RFS and OS favored CRT, the addition of cisplatin during RT did not statistically improve RFS or OS in cervical cancer patients with intermediate pathologic risk factors following radical hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy. CRT increased grade 3 and 4 AEs with a transient decline in QOL.