Purpose: Treatment outcomes for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer are no better with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) combined with radiotherapy (RT) than with RT alone. We investigated the reason for this failure from the standpoint of the tumor regression rate (RR).
Materials and methods: A total of 48 patients with clinical stage IIB-IVA cervical squamous cell carcinoma were treated clinically with cisplatin-based NAC plus RT (n = 15) or RT alone (n = 33). The RR was defined as the slope of a tumor shrinkage curve derived with magnetic resonance images. The local control rate (LCR) and disease-free rate (DFR) were estimated by clinical stage (IIB vs. III-IVA), pretreatment volume (< or = median vs. > median), lymph node status (negative vs. positive), treatment type, overall treatment time (< or =8 weeks vs. >8 weeks), and RR (< or = median vs. > median) using univariate and multivariate analyses.
Results: RR during NAC or during NAC and RT (n = 15) was not significantly higher than RR by RT alone (n = 33). Low RR and positive nodal status were significantly powerful prognostic factors for both the LCR and DFR, whereas the others were not.
Conclusion: Although effective in reducing tumor volume prior to RT, NAC showed no overall effect in increasing the RR, which was shown to be the most powerful prognostic factor.