Differential clinical characteristics, treatment response and prognosis of locally advanced adenocarcinoma/adenosquamous carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of cervix treated with definitive radiotherapy

Objective To compare tumor characteristics and clinical outcome of patients with cervical locally advanced adenocarcinoma (AC)/adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Design Retrospective study. Setting National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. Population All patients with cervical SCC (n = 35), AC or ASC (n = 194) with FIGO stage ≥IIB who received definitive radiotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) from January 1995 to December 2009. Method Medical and histopathological record review. Main outcome measures Progression-free survival (PFS), local recurrence-free survival, distant metastasis-free survival, and overall survival (OS). Results Compared with the SCC subgroup, patients with AC/ASC were significantly younger (p = 0.007), more of them without clinical symptoms were diagnosed by abnormal Pap smear findings (p = 0.043), and less responded to treatment (p = 0.018). After a median follow-up of 59.3 months, patients with AC/ASC had worse 5-year PFS (30.0% vs. 47.6%, p = 0.044), worse 5-year distant metastasis-free survival (41.5% vs. 69.9%, p = 0.005), and trends toward worse 5-year local recurrence-free survival (64.4% vs. 76.2%, p = 0.165) and worse 5-year OS (41.3% vs. 58.1%, p = 0.090) than patients with SCC. In univariate analysis, early FIGO stage and complete treatment response were significantly associated with PFS and OS. Histology of non-AC/ASC and Point A biologically equivalent doses in 2-Gy fractions >85 Gy were significantly associated with better PFS, and CCRT was significantly associated with better OS. In multivariate analysis, complete treatment response and early FIGO stage remained significant factors for predicting better PFS and OS. Conclusions Cervical AC/ASC may be more aggressive than is SCC. For cervical AC/ASC, more comprehensively effective treatments are warranted.