Pulmonary recurrence after radical hysterectomy for uterine cervical carcinoma

Abstract

Pulmonary spread from carcinoma of the uterine cervix, though uncommon, has been reported in 2.2–9.1% of all cervical cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the surgical, clinical, pathological factors and clinical outcomes of cervical cancer patients with pulmonary recurrence (PR).

This study included 17 cervical cancer patients with PR after radical hysterectomy. The entire cohort consisted of 413 patients whose surgeries (type III radical hysterectomy + pelvic ± para-aortic lymphadenectomy) had been performed in our Gynaecologic Oncology Clinic between 1993 and 2018. Tumour size, lymph node metastasis and receiving adjuvant therapy were found to be effective for PR on univariate analyses in the main cohort (p = .042, p < .001 and p = .001, respectively). Therefore, performing adjuvant therapy to reduce the PR must be assessed properly with the information of lymph node status and tumour size obtained from the final pathology reports.

Impact Statement

• What is already known on this subject? Pulmonary spread from carcinoma of the uterine cervix has been reported in 2.2–9.1% of all cervical cancers. Data related to clinico-pathological features of patients with pulmonary recurrence (PR) is limited. Diagnosis of a PR is considered to worsen the prognosis.

• What do the results of this study add? Tumour size, lymph node metastasis and receiving adjuvant therapy were found to be effective for PR on univariate analyses.

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Performing adjuvant therapy to reduce the PR must be assessed properly with the information of lymph node status and tumour size obtained from the final pathology reports in patients with uterine cervical carcinoma.

Keywords:

• Cervical cancer
• pulmonary recurrence
• adjuvant therapy
• survival
• chemotherapy
• radiotherapy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.