Heart Rate Variability is an Independent Predictor of Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Cervical Cancer

Heart rate variability (HRV) has been reported as a useful biomarker for prognostic factors in a variety of cancers. The purpose of this study was to explore the predictive value of preoperative HRV for lymph node metastasis (LNM) in patients with cervical cancer (CC).

A total of 77 patients with CC were included, including 18 LNM and 59 non-LNM patients. A five-minute resting electrocardiogram (ECG) was collected before surgery for the analysis of HRV time domain, frequency domain and Poincaré plot parameters (ie, SDNN, RMSSD, LF, HF, LF/HF, SD1, SD2 and SD2/SD1). Student's t-tests and logistic regression were performed to determine the relationship between HRV and LNM.

The LNM group had significantly lower SDNN, LF, and SD2 than the non-LNM group (all p < 0.05; all Cohen's d > 0.5). Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that SDNN, LF and SD2 were still significantly associated with LNM. Specifically, for each 1 ms decrease in SDNN and SD2 and each 1 logarithmic unit decrease in ln (LF), the odds of LNM increased by 12%, 9%, and 86%, respectively (all p < 0.05).

These findings suggest an association between HRV and CC LNM, and HRV could be a potential noninvasive biomarker for the prediction of LNM in CC patients.