Prognostic Factors and Treatment Outcome for Patients with Stage IVB Cervical Cancer

We report a retrospective evaluation for patients with stage IVB cervical cancer in order to identify survival rates and to improve our current practice.

We analyzed 85 patients with stage IVB cervical cancer. For patients appropriate for radical treatment, a combination of external-beam radiotherapy and intracavitary brachytherapy was delivered with/without chemotherapy. Patients with distant metastasis were treated using systemic chemotherapy or palliative radiotherapy.

Forty-two patients were treated using radiotherapy alone, 31 using chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy, eight using chemotherapy alone, and four using best supportive care. The 5-year overall survival rate was 9.9%. Multivariate analysis revealed leukocytosis and a poor performance status were independent prognostic factors. Of the 43 patients without these prognostic factors, patients with only lymph node metastasis had a 5-year overall survival rate of 40.5%.

Radical treatment should be considered in patients who have only lymph rode metastasis and are without leukocytosis and a poor performance status.