The outcome of the patients with recurrent cervical carcinoma in terms of lymph node metastasis and treatment.

Of the 908 patients who underwent radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy for invasive cervical cancer from 1973 to 1983, 139 (or 15.30%) had recurrences. The recurrent rate in the 175 patients with positive pelvic lymph nodes was 32.6%, compared with a 11.2% in the 733 patients with negative nodes (P less than 0.001). This suggests that cervical cancer patients with negative nodes acquire better prognosis after surgical treatments. Not only is recurrence much less frequent in patients with negative nodes, but also the outcome of treatments is significantly in favor of such patients: (A) 51 recurrent patients refused further treatments owing to personal reasons. None survived over 3 years; (B) The survival rate is far higher for treated patients formerly with negative nodes. Sixty of the 82 patients achieved a 5-year survival of 17.74% compared with a 2-year survival of 21.64% only in 28 patients with positive nodes. This suggests that our treatments on patients with recurrent cervical cancer are more effective when the patients have previously had negative nodes, and that refusal of treatment results in quick death.