Carcinoma of the cervical stump: fifty years of experience

A series of patients with carcinoma of the cervical stump in relation to age, clinical stage, histopathology, changes in relative incidence, treatment outcome and long-term survival, were studied and the findings were compared with matched controls that have an intact uterus and cancer of the cervix. Of 8,028 women treated for invasive cervical carcinoma between 1959-2004, 161 were diagnosed with stump cancer, accounting for 2.0% of all cervical cancers. The mean time interval between subtotal hysterectomy and stump cancer diagnosis was 17.6 years, with a range of 1-46 years. In 80% of cases, symptoms drove the patient to seek medical attention and postcoital, intermenstrual or postmenopausal bleeding was the main reason. Among 161 stump cancer cases 89% were squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and the remaining 17 cases were adenocarcinomas (AC). Cumulative cause-specific survival rate was significantly worse for adenocarcinoma than for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the cervical stump (Log-rank p = 0.027, Cox-Mantel p = 0.015, Cox F-test p = 0.01). The stump cancer cases show a worse stage profile compared with the cancer cases in intact uterus. We conclude that the total effect of stump cancers following subtotal hysterectomies is not to be neglected.