Prognostic value of a malignancy grading system in treatment of recurrent cervical carcinoma

A malignancy grading system (MGS) comprising 8 histopathological parameters has been used to evaluate the response rate and prognosis for patients receiving chemotherapy for recurrent cervical carcinoma. Seventy-two women were treated with an adriamycin-cyclophosamide-vincristine (ACO) regimen or bleomycin-adriamycin-cisplatin (BAD) regimen. The mean value in the MGS was 16.7 for the primary tumors and 17.4 for the recurrences. Correlations between the individual parameters of the MGS when used on the primary tumors and on the recurrences were low. Only parameters 7 (vascular invasion) and 8 (lymphocytic response) were significantly higher in the recurrences. Responders had significantly longer survival than non-responders (P less than 0.001), but the two groups did not differ regarding the malignancy scores for the 8 individual parameters nor for the MGS sums.