The incidence of cervical cancer among older women is increasing. The treatment outcome in these patients is affected byvarious patient and tumor-related factors. In this study, we retrospectively investigated the survival outcomes, treatment-related toxicity, and patterns of failures for elderly patients (?75 years old) with cervical cancer treated with definitive radiotherapy.
METHODS
Twenty-three patient"s fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria were analyzed. The survival was studied
using the Kaplan-Meir method, and its relation with different clinicopathologic parameters was compared.
RESULTS
After a median follow-up time of 46 months (range 3-93), the overall survival for the entire cohort of
patients at 5 years and 7 years were 54.9% and 43.9%, respectively, and the disease-free survival at 3 years
and 5 years were 66.3% and 45.9% respectively. Patients receiving total radiation dose (EqD2) more than
80 Gy achieved statistically significant improved survival than those receiving lower doses (p=0.04).
Grade III acute toxicity was experienced by 2 patients (8.7%) with diarrhea and one patient (4.3%) with
dermatitis, but no grade IV acute toxicity was recorded. Two patients (8.7%) developed rectal bleeding
as late toxicity. At the end of follow-up, 11 patients (47.8%) experienced a relapse. Distant metastasis to
the lung was the most common type of failure.
CONCLUSION
Definitive radiotherapy is safe and well-tolerated by elderly patients with cervix cancer with an acceptable
degree of toxicities.