Caglayan Selenge Beduk Esen

Role of vaginal brachytherapy boost following adjuvant external beam radiotherapy in cervical cancer: Turkish Society for Radiation Oncology Gynecologic Group Study (TROD 04-002)

There are a limited number of studies supporting vaginal brachytherapy boost to external beam radiotherapy in the adjuvant treatment of cervical cancer. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the addition of vaginal brachytherapy boost to adjuvant external beam radiotherapy on oncological outcomes and toxicity in patients with cervical cancer. Patients treated with post-operative external beam radiotherapy ± chemotherapy ± vaginal brachytherapy between January 2001 and January 2019 were retrospectively evaluated. The treatment outcomes and prognostic factors were analyzed in patients treated with external beam radiotherapy with or without vaginal brachytherapy. A total of 480 patients were included in the analysis. The median age was 51 years (range 42-60). At least two intermediate risk factors were observed in 51% of patients, while 49% had at least one high-risk factor. The patients in the external beam radiotherapy + vaginal brachytherapy group had worse prognostic factors than the external beam radiotherapy alone group. With a median follow-up time of 56 months (range 33-90), the 5-year overall survival rate was 82%. There was no difference in 5-year overall survival (87% vs 79%, p=0.11), recurrence-free survival (74% vs 71%, p=0.49), local recurrence-free survival (78% vs 76%, p=0.16), and distant metastasis-free survival (85% vs 76%, p=0.09) rates between treatment groups. There was no benefit of addition of vaginal brachytherapy to external beam radiotherapy in patients with positive surgical margins. In multivariate analysis, stage (overall survival and local recurrence-free survival), tumor histology (recurrence-free survival, local recurrence-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival), parametrial invasion (recurrence-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival), lymphovascular space invasion (recurrence-free survival), and lymph node metastasis (distant metastasis-free survival) were found as negative prognostic factors. Adding vaginal brachytherapy boost to external beam radiotherapy did not provide any benefit in local control or survival in patients with cervical cancer.

Stromal or intraepithelial tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes: which one has more prognostic significance in cervical cancer?

To investigate the effect of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) on treatment results in patients with cervical squamous cell carcinoma who underwent definitive or adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) or chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Pathological specimens were evaluated from 96 cervical cancer patients who were treated with definitive or adjuvant RT/CRT between April 2001 and January 2020. The percentage of intraepithelial TILs (iTILs) and stromal TILs (sTILs) were calculated, and immunohistochemistry was used for identifying lymphocyte lineage with CD4, CD8, and CD20 antibodies and macrophages with CD68 antibody. Prognostic values of TILs/TAMs on oncological outcomes were evaluated. Thirty patients had early-stage disease and 66 patients had advanced-stage disease. Sixty-three and 33 patients received adjuvant RT and definitive CRT, respectively. Low number of sCD20 positive cells was associated with large tumor size and parametrial invasion. In multivariate analysis, low percentage of sTILs and advanced-stage disease were independent poor prognostic factors for overall survival, disease-free survival (DFS), and distant metastasis-free survival; low number of sCD4 positive cells was also an independent poor prognostic factor for DFS. Low percentage of sTILs and low number of sCD8 positive cells was correlated with high rates of distant metastasis (p = 0.038 and p = 0.025, respectively). sTILs have superior predictive value than iTILs in terms of prognosis. Stromal compartment should be investigated as a routine practice in TIL studies in cervical cancer. Intensifying the treatment in cervical cancer patients with low number of sTILs should be studied in further investigations.