Influence of uterine corpus invasion on prognosis in stage IA2-IIB cervical cancer: A multicenter retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the associations between the presence and depth of uterine corpus invasion and survival in patients with cervical cancer.

METHODS

Clinical data of patients with stage IA2-IIB cervical cancer who underwent radical hysterectomy between 2004 and 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Uterine corpus invasion was identified from a review of uterine pathology. Independent prognostic factors for 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were identified using multivariate forward stepwise Cox proportional hazards regression models.

RESULTS

A total of 1414 patients with stage IA2-IIB cervical cancer from 11 medical institutions in China were included. Retrospective review of the original pathology reports revealed a missed diagnosis of uterine corpus invasion in 38 (13.4%) patients and a misdiagnosis in 20 (1.8%) patients. Therefore, 284 patients with cervical cancer and uterine corpus invasion (90 [31.7%] patients had endometrial invasion, 105 [37.0%] patients had myometrial invasion <50%, and 89 [31.3%] patients had myometrial invasion ≥50%), and 1130 patients with cervical cancer without uterine corpus invasion were included in the analysis. The 5-year DFS and OS were significantly shorter for patients with uterine corpus invasion compared to patients with no uterine corpus invasion. Myometrial invasion ≥50% was an independent prognostic factor associated with decreased 5-year DFS (aHR, 2.307, 95% CI, 1.588-3.351) and 5-year OS (aHR, 2.736, 95% CI, 1.813-4.130), while myometrial invasion <50% or endometrial invasion had no effect on patient outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Diagnosis of uterine corpus invasion is frequently missed. Myometrial invasion ≥50% within the uterine corpus was an independent factor associated with worse prognosis in patients with cervical cancer, while myometrial invasion <50% or endometrial invasion had no effect on outcomes.