F Landoni

Surveillance procedures for patients with cervical carcinoma a review of the literature

Cervical cancer is still one of the most common malignancies in women. Treatment of cervical cancer is very successful, especially in the early stage. However, some patients will experience recurrence. The primary purpose of follow-up programs is early detection of recurrence disease that should be more likely to be amenable to treatment, thereby improving the clinical outcome. Although, in the literature, most studies have shown that the surveillance programs did not improve the clinical outcome of patients with diagnosis of recurrence, this clinical practice is regarded as traditional management. The use of Papanicolaou tests to detect recurrent cervical cancer is not sufficiently justified. The assessment of tumor markers such as the squamous cell carcinoma antigen could be useful. Imaging techniques are important for the detection and assessment of recurrent disease. The role of chest x-rays in detecting asymptomatic recurrence in patients treated for cervical carcinoma remains controversial. Detection of a new abnormal mass or the changes in the size of a known lesion caused by cancer growth and the determination of the extent of recurrence with computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging may provide clinical assistance in the selection of optimal therapy. The fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography for surveillance only show 80% of specificity and accuracy with negative predictive value of 100%. Integrated fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography provides precise anatomic localization of suspicious areas and, therefore, a better diagnostic interpretation with a possible impact on disease-free survival as well. In conclusion, our review confirms the need for prospective studies to compare the effectiveness of different follow-up regimens measuring overall survival and quality of life parameters as outcomes.

The role of the French–Italian glossary of complications in the outcome evaluation of cervical cancer treatment: an Italian multicentric study

UNLABELLED The optimal treatment for cervical cancer is still a controversial matter: in the last two decades a lot of different modalities combining surgery, radiotherapy (RT) and chemotherapy (CHT) have been suggested and analysed in clinical trials. Nevertheless, analysis of treatment in cancer patients should be directed not only to survival, but also to the cost of complications and quality of life. In June 1988, a French-Italian co-operative group set up a glossary in which the complications of the treatment of cervical cancer are described and ranked. Nowadays, this is the only international system based upon an accurate description of symptoms and signs of complications following multidisciplinary treatment. The glossary was based on our previous experience in treating patients by surgery alone, RT or their combinations. Recently multimodality treatment includes also CHT. The aim of the present study was to verify whether the glossary is still a useful clinical instrument in outcome evaluation of cervical cancer treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS The analysis has been done on a retrospective consecutive series of 579 patients affected by cervical cancer, treated in five Italian institutions. A minimum of 12 months follow up was required. All medical records of the patients enrolled, were examined by two independent reviewers in order to classify the complications according to the glossary. RESULTS Out of 579 patients 319 (55.1%) were free of complications and 260 (44.9%) experienced at least one complication. We found 436 complications. The distribution by Grade was: G1 58.9%, G2 27.5%, G3 13.5%. We had no fatal complication (G4). The glossary included all observed complications, except for pulmonary fibrosis. CONCLUSION The glossary is still a useful instrument in evaluating the outcome of cervical cancer treatment, whatever the therapy, and should be considered in quality of life assessment.

Lymph node evaluation in high-risk early stage endometrial cancer: A multi-institutional retrospective analysis comparing the sentinel lymph node (SLN) algorithm and SLN with selective lymphadenectomy

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the sentinel lymph node mapping algorithm (SLN-A) on the staging in high-risk endometrial cancer (EC) compared to SLN plus selective lymphadenectomy (S-LND). METHODS We retrospectively analyzed the database from a multicenter collaboration that included women with high risk features who underwent primary surgical staging. RESULTS One-hundred and seventy-one women were identified (171), 66 in the SLN-A and 105 in the S-LND group, respectively. Pelvic LD was performed on 115 patients (67.2%) and aortic dissection was performed in 54/105 of the women in the S-LND group (51%). The 5-year comparison did not show a significant difference in the strategy adopted for nodal staging, regarding disease-free survival (DFS) [HR: 0.82; 95% CI 0.53-1.28; p = 0.390]. CONCLUSIONS In this study focusing on women with EC in the HR groups, we did not find a difference in the 5-year DFS when comparing the SLN-A strategy with S-LND. The SLN strategy did not seem to compromise the prognosis of patients with a higher risk of recurrence.