Addition of chemotherapy to definitive radiotherapy for IB1 and IIA1 cervical cancer: Analysis of the National Cancer Data Base

Purpose The standard treatment for stage IB1 and IIA1 cervical carcinoma is surgery. For non-operative cases, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommends definitive radiotherapy (RT) with or without chemotherapy. This study sought to determine whether the addition of chemotherapy to RT improved overall survival (OS) for patients with stage IB1 and IIA1 cervical cancer. Methods We used the National Cancer Data Base to identify patients with stage IB1 or stage IIA1 cervical cancer diagnosed in 2004 to 2012 who received definitive RT with or without chemotherapy. Patient, tumor, and treatment facility characteristics were assessed. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to compare overall survival (OS) between groups. Cox regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with survival. Propensity-score matching was used to compare survival outcomes while accounting for indication bias. Results 825 patients met the specified criteria. 275 (33.3%) of patients received treatment with RT alone, whereas 550 (66.7%) were treated with CRT. The median OS in patients treated with RT alone was 121.1 months, while the median OS for patients treated with CRT was not reached (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.719; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.549–0.945). Propensity-score matched analysis confirmed that CRT was superior to RT alone (HR = 0.701; 95% CI 0.509 to 0.963). Conclusions Our study suggests the addition of chemotherapy to definitive RT in patients with stage IB1 or stage IIA1 cervical cancer is associated with an improvement in OS. Prospective studies are recommended to validate these results and to further investigate the quality of life differences associated with chemotherapy use.