Overall treatment time in advanced cervical carcinomas: a critical parameter in treatment outcome.

Abstract

To search for possible influence of overall treatment time on the clinical outcome of advanced cervical carcinomas treated with radiation alone. Three hundred and eighty-six patients with Stage IIB and III cervical carcinomas treated with external radiation and intracavitary curietherapy between 1973 and 1983 were entered in the study. A multivariate analysis was carried out on data concerning these patients to determine whether overall treatment time was a prognostic factor. Overall treatment time and blood transfusions during treatment were the two most highly significant factors in the multivariate analysis. Loss of local control and overall survival, when treatment exceeded 52 days, was approximately 1% per day in both cases. These results suggest that overall treatment time might be a highly significant prognostic factor in the treatment outcome of advanced cervical carcinomas. Prospective randomized studies are strongly warranted to confirm this hypothesis.