Peritoneal cytology in patients with uterine cervical carcinoma

We studied the relationship between cytological diagnosis of peritoneal washing and pathohistological findings in 97 cases of stage Ib and 103 cases of stage IIa or b cervical carcinoma. No positive cytology was found in 24 cases classified as pT1 by pTNM classification. Positive cytology was found in 8 out of 40 cases with retroperitoneal lymph node metastasis, 2 out of 5 cases with uterine corpus infiltration, and 3 out of 4 cases with ovarian metastasis. Negative cytology was often found even in cases with metastasis to several retroperitoneal lymph nodes, while positive cytology was also found in cases without metastasis. The mechanism of cervical carcinoma metastasizing to retroperitoneal lymph nodes may not be the same as that of spreading into the abdominal cavity. Many cases with positive peritoneal cytology tended to recur with peritoneal carcinoma as compared to those with negative cytology. The above findings indicate that chemotherapy, including intraperitoneal administration, is necessary in addition to radiation therapy for patients with cervical carcinoma with positive peritoneal washings.