Perineural Invasion Should Be Regarded as an Intermediate-Risk Factor for Recurrence in Surgically Treated Cervical Cancer: A Propensity Score Matching Study.

BACKGROUND

Perineural invasion (PNI) is considered as a poor prognostic factor in cervical cancer, but there has been no postoperative adjuvant therapy for it, because whether it belongs to high- or intermediate-risk factors has not been determined, this study intends to provide evidences to solve this problem.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective analysis of cervical cancer patients who underwent radical surgery and be reported PNI from January 2012 to June 2017 at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. After 1 : 1 propensity score matching (PSM), a group of patients without PNI was matched according to the clinical pathological features. Postoperative pathological parameters and prognosis were evaluated between the PNI and the matched groups.

RESULTS

1836 patients were screened, of which 162 (8.8%) diagnosed as stages IB1 to IIB reported PNI. Comparing to the matched group, more PNI (+) patients had deep outer cervix stromal invasion, cervical tunica adventitia invasion, positive lymph nodes, and positive margins. Among patients without high-risk factors, PNI (+) patients had worse 3-year overall survival (90.8% vs. 98.1%, = 0.02), PNI (+) patients with single intermediate-risk factor and PNI (-) patients who meet with SEDLIS criteria had similar progress free survival ( = 0.63) and overall survival ( = 0.63), even similar survival curves.

CONCLUSION

PNI is related to a worse overall survival among cervical cancer patients without high-risk factors and play the role as an intermediate-risk factor.