Predicting factors for primary cervical cancer recurrence after definitive radiation therapy

The study aimed to retrospectively investigate the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of primary cervical cancer to examine the recurrence correlations in patients treated with radiotherapy (RT).

The ADC of 31 patients with cervical cancer treated with RT were analyzed as possible risk factors for recurrence. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the mean ADC (ADCmean) for the recurrence was generated to determine the cut-off value that yielded optimal sensitivity and specificity. The patient population was subdivided according to the risk factors for recurrence, and the disease-free survival (DFS) was analyzed. The following were investigated to explore the risk factors for recurrence: age, performance status, stage, pelvic lymph node metastasis, histologic tumor grade, maximal diameter of the primary tumor, chemotherapy, and ADCmean.

The median follow-up duration of the patients was 25 months. The recurrence was recognized in 9 (29%) of the 31 cases. The ROC analysis of recurrence showed that the area under the ADCmean curve was 0.889 (95% CI, 0.771-1.000; p = 0.001). The cut-off value of ADC mean was 0.900 × 10^{- 3} mm²/s, with a sensitivity of 86.4% and a specificity of 88.9%. By univariate analysis, the ADCmean was the only factor significantly associated with recurrence.

The ADCmean of the primary tumor is a potential predictive factor for the recurrence in of cervical cancer.

The ADCmean of the primary tumor is a predictor of recurrence in patients with pre-treatment cervical cancer evaluation.