Five years' experience treating locally advanced cervical cancer with concurrent chemoradiotherapy: results from a single institution

Introduction Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of female cancer death. In Morocco it is the second most common cancer, our department recruits more than 500 patients each year and proximally half of the cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Patients and methods Between January 2008 and December 2008, all patients with diagnosis of locally advanced cervical cancer referred to our department and treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy were retrieved. We analyzed outcomes for this particular population; overall survival, local control, and toxicities, we also retrieved prognostic factors influencing outcomes for this population. Results The overall survival rate for the cohort was 68 % at 2 years, and reached 47 % at 5 years. The overall LC rate was 71 % at 2 years and 58 % at 5 years. The most important prognostic factors for OS and LC were the pretreatment hemoglobin, the tumor size, total duration of treatment, and the use of brachytherapy. For OS, the presence of enlarged lymph nodes was also important. For LC, the number of chemotherapy's courses was important. Of the included patients, 20 % experienced late grade 3 or 4 toxicity. Conclusion The results of our study have shown that despite all the treatment strategies available, locally advanced cervical cancer is associated with bad outcomes. In this cohort, the most important prognostic factors were the pretreatment hemoglobin level and the tumor size.