Long-term observation of patients treated by postoperative extended-field irradiation for nodal metastases from cervical carcinoma stages IB, IIA, and IIB.

Extended-field irradiation was administered to 72 patients after radical surgery for nodal metastases from cervical carcinomas at Stage IB (37 patients), IIA (6 patients), and IIB (29 patients) who were treated from 1981 to 1986. The 5-year disease-free survival rates (DFR) were significantly different between 61 squamous cell carcinomas and 11 nonsquamous cell carcinomas (72 versus 27%, P = 0.0051). In the 61 squamous patients, the DFR were 82% for 51 patients with resectable nodes and 20% for 10 patients with unresectable nodes (P = 0.0003). In the 51 patients with resectable nodes the DFR were 84% for Stage IB, 100% for Stage IIA, and 76% for Stage IIB. There were no significant differences among those categories subdivided by clinical stage, number of positive nodes, common iliac node metastasis, positive node laterality, depth of tumor invasion, parametrial extension, and menopause. These findings suggest that postoperative extended-field radiotherapy is effective in squamous cell carcinomas and that the prognostic values of these factors were decreased with high patients survival rates given by this combined therapy.