Prognostic factors of adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix

Objective. The prognostic importance of adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix was investigated. Methods. One hundred ninety-three patients (144 had stage I disease, 41 stage II, and 8 stage III-TV) with invasive adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix treated initially at the Aichi Cancer Center between 1964 and 1995 were studied. Results. Of all the invasive cervical cancers, 8.8% were adenocarcinomas that had been increasing during the past decade, The overall 5-year survival for stage I was 88.8%, stage II 44.9%, and stage III-IV 0% In univariate analysis, the clinicopathological factors associated with overall survival and disease-free survival were age of patient, stage of disease, presence of nodal metastasis, number of lymph nodes involved, lymph-vascular space invasion, tumor size, and intraperitoneal metastasis. Multivariate analysis performed in all cases identified the clinical stage of disease, the presence of nodal metastasis, number of lymph nodes involved, lymph-vascular space invasion, and tumor size as the independent risk factors for recurrence and survival. In the analysis of stage I disease, lymph node metastasis and tumor size were the significant prognostic factors, while lymph-vascular space invasion and tumor size were the factors in advanced disease. Tumor grade and histological type were not associated with recurrence and survival. Conclusion. These results suggested the association of lymph node metastasis with the prognosis of early stage adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix and lymph-vascular space invasion with the advanced stage. Tumor size was an independent risk factor throughout all stages. (C) 1999 Academic Press.