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Introduction: Gynecological cancer patients are routinely followed up for five years after primary treatment. However, the value of such follow up has been debated, as retrospective studies indicate that first recurrence is often symptomatic and occurs within two to three years of primary treatment. We prospectively investigated time to first recurrence, symptoms at recurrence, diagnostic procedures, and recurrence treatment in gynecological cancer patients after primary curative treatment.Material and Methods: Clinicians from 21 hospitals in Norway interviewed 680 patients with first recurrence of gynecological cancer (409 ovarian, 213 uterine, and 58 cervical cancer patients) between 2012 and 2016. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect information on self-reported and clinical variables.Results: Within two years of primary treatment, 72% of ovarian, 64% of uterine, and 66% of cervical cancer patients were diagnosed with first recurrence, and 54, 67, and 72%, respectively, had symptomatic recurrence. Of symptomatic patients, 25-50% failed to make an appointment before their next scheduled follow-up visit. Computer tomography was the most common diagnostic procedure (89% of ovarian, 76% of uterine, and 62% of cervical cancer patients), and recurrence treatment in terms of chemotherapy was most frequently planned (86% of ovarian, 46% of uterine, and 62% of cervical cancer patients).Conclusions: A majority of patients experienced symptomatic recurrence, but many patients failed to make an appointment earlier than scheduled. Most first recurrences occurred within two years of primary treatment; the mean annual incidence rate for years 3-5 after primary treatment was <7%. New models for follow up of gynecological cancer patients could be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Emerging biomarkers from medical imaging or molecular characterization of tumour biopsies open up for combining the two and exploiting their synergy in treatment planning of cancer patients. We generated a paired data set of imaging- and gene-based hypoxia biomarkers in cervical cancer, appraised the influence of intratumour heterogeneity in patient classification, and investigated the benefit of combining the methodologies in prediction of chemoradiotherapy failure., Methods: Hypoxic fraction from dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE)-MR images and an expression signature of six hypoxia-responsive genes were assessed as imaging- and gene-based biomarker, respectively in 118 patients., Findings: Dichotomous biomarker cutoff to yield similar hypoxia status by imaging and genes was defined in 41 patients, and the association was validated in the remaining 77 patients. The two biomarkers classified 75% of 118 patients with the same hypoxia status, and inconsistent classification was not related to imaging-defined intratumour heterogeneity in hypoxia. Gene-based hypoxia was independent on tumour cell fraction in the biopsies and showed minor heterogeneity across multiple samples in 9 tumours. Combining imaging- and gene-based classification gave a significantly better prediction of PFS than one biomarker alone. A combined dichotomous biomarker optimized in 77 patients showed a large separation in PFS between more and less hypoxic tumours, and separated the remaining 41 patients with different PFS. The combined biomarker showed prognostic value together with tumour stage in multivariate analysis., Interpretation: Combining imaging- and gene-based biomarkers may enable more precise and informative assessment of hypoxia-related chemoradiotherapy resistance in cervical cancer., Funding: Norwegian Cancer Society, South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, and Norwegian Research Council., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest HL is registered as inventor of a patent application covering the clinical use of the hypoxia gene signature (WO2013/124,738)., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)