Improved survival after concurrent weekly cisplatin and radiotherapy for cervical carcinoma with assessment of acute and late side-effects

Aims: A recent meta-analysis has shown a survival advantage for the addition of concurrent chemotherapy to radiotherapy in the treatment of cervical carcinoma. Controversy persists about the most appropriate chemotherapy schedule and whether similar results for turnout control and toxicity may be achieved with optimally delivered radiotherapy. A single-centre experience of a concurrent chemotherapy regimen is presented. Materials and methods: All women treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy at a university hospital from 1 January 1999 to 1 May 2002 were identified. Acute and late complications were scored using the National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria and RTOG/ EORTC system, respectively. Univariate and multivariate analyses were carried out to examine the relationship between demographics, stage, overall treatment time, radiotherapy dose, selectron insertion, number of chemotherapy cycles and occurrence of acute and late toxicity. Results: Seventy-nine women received concurrent weekly cisplatin (40 mg/m(2)) with radiotherapy. Thirty-eight per cent had early tumours (FIGO IIA or less) and 62% had locally advanced tumours. Twenty-eight per cent of women had surgery as part of primary treatment. Radiation technique included external-beam pelvic radiotherapy (EBRT) (45-50.4 Gy in 25-28 fractions) and medium-dose rate brachy-therapy single insertion (25-27 Gy to point A) or EBRT alone. Median overall treatment time was 49 days (range 23-91 days). Three-year survival rate was 87% (95% confidence interval [CI] 79-95%). Three-year, progression-free survival rate was 75% (95% CI 65-85%). At a median follow-up of 35 months: 27 (34%) women experienced 45 episodes of acute grade 3 or 4, and eight women (10%) experienced 12 late grade 3 or 4 complications. Conclusions: Weekly cisplatin 40 mg/m(2) concurrent with radiotherapy is well tolerated when given to an unselected population of patients. Survival rates seem to be excellent, with both local control and overall survival being at least as good as those in published randomised trials.