Surgery alone or in association with preoperative uterovaginal brachytherapy for stage IB1 cervical cancer: Toxicities profiles

Objective. - To assess toxicity profile in two stage-IB1 cervical cancer treatment strategies: surgery with and without preoperative uterovaginal pulsed dose-rate brachytherapy. Methods. - A retrospective study included 45 patients presenting stage-IB1 cervical cancer without pelvic lymph-node invasion, between 2009 and 2011: 25 treated by colpohysterectomy alone (group A) and 20 with preoperative uterovaginal pulsed dose-rate brachytherapy (group B). The median follow-up was 45 and 39 months (group A and B). Results. - Groups were comparable for age (median, 46.9 vs 47.6 years), histologic type (52% vs 65% squamous cell carcinoma) and tumor size (68% vs 60%, < 2 cm). In postoperative year 1, rates of urinary, digestive and gynaecological disorder were 39.1%, 8.7% and 15% respectively in group A versus 36.8%, 5.3% and 31.6% in group B and in year 2, 5.9%, 8.4% and 15% versus 5.6%, 5.1% and 27.8%. Discussion and conclusion. - The present study comparing two stage-IB1 cervical cancer treatment strategies found no significant difference in early or late complications. In 2 months, there was greater grade-3 urinary toxicity (21.1%) and sexual disorder (15.8%) with preoperative brachytherapy but no significant difference. Exclusive surgery is probably preferable for the patient's quality of life. (C) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.