Back to Journals » Cancer Management and Research » Volume 11
Selective use of concurrent chemotherapy in elderly cervical cancer patients treated with definitive radiotherapy: experience from two institutions
Authors You K, Peng H, Jiang Y, Bi Z, Qiu X
Received 7 October 2018
Accepted for publication 15 March 2019
Published 27 May 2019 Volume 2019:11 Pages 4815—4823
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/CMAR.S190025
Checked for plagiarism Yes
Review by Single-blind
Peer reviewers approved by Dr Andrew Yee
Peer reviewer comments 3
Editor who approved publication: Dr Beicheng Sun
Kai-yun You,1,* Hai-hua Peng,2,* Yan-hui Jiang,1,* Zhuo-fei Bi,1 Xing-sheng Qiu1
1Department of Radiation Oncology, SunYat-Sen Memorial Hospital, SunYat-Sen University; 2Department of Radiation Oncology, Affiliated Cancer Hospital & Institute of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510075, People’s Republic of China
*These authors contributed equally to this work
Background: Whether concurrent chemotherapy could bring about better oncological outcomes in elderly patients receiving definitive radiotherapy is still unknown. So, the purpose of this study was to find out whether it is essential for elderly patients to undergo concurrent chemotherapy.
Methods: We performed a retrospective study of 246 elderly cervical cancer patients who were treated with definitive radiotherapy or chemo-radiation between August 2004 and August 2015. All patients were divided into two groups according to whether they were receiving concurrent chemotherapy or not. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were compared between the two groups. Recurrence patterns were also analyzed. Multivariate analysis was performed to explore clinical factors significantly associated with DFS, local recurrence-free survival, and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS).
Results: The 5-year OS in the radiotherapy and chemo-radiation groups were 72.89% and 82.25%, respectively. A significant difference was found between the two groups (P=0.016). The 5-year DFS in the radiotherapy and chemo-radiaton groups were 58.19% and 75.52%, respectively, also with a significant difference between the two groups (P=0.028). Further subgroup analysis showed that in patients with negative lymph nodes, there were no differences in both OS and DFS between patients who did and did not receive concurrent chemotherapy. However, in patients with positive lymph nodes, patients who received concurrent chemotherapy acquired better OS and DFS than those who did not. Multivariable analysis showed that concurrent chemotherapy was an independent predictor of DFS and DMFS.
Conclusion: Concurrent chemotherapy could improve oncological outcomes in elderly cervical cancer patients with positive lymph nodes, but not in those with negative lymph nodes.
Keywords: cervical cancer, chemotherapy, radiotherapy
This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.
By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.