Concomitant Chemo-radiation in Advanced Stage Carcinoma Cervix: A Phase III Randomized Trial

Carcinoma cervix is the commonest malignancy seen in Asian women and constitutes approximately 30% of all cancers (1). It is also the leading cause of cancer mortality in India. Nearly 50% of the patients present with advanced stages (FIGO Stage III/IV). The main stay of treatment has traditionally been radical radiation therapy and over decades the survival rates have achieved a plateau of 30 - 45% at 5 years. In developing countries the socioeconomic problems, illiteracy, late presentation and irregular follow-up have further compromised our survivals. Over the last decade there have been studies on the use of chemo-radiotherapy in carcinoma cervix. Over 19 randomized trials have been published addressing the issue of chemo-radiotherapy. However, heterogeneous data, poor randomization, inadequate number of patients, sub-optimal radiotherapy, non-uniform use of chemotherapeutic drugs, its sequencing and poor documentation have not yet provided the evidence to substantially alter the practice. Hence, meta-analysis of these trials was undertaken to further evaluate the role of chemo-radiotherapy in carcinoma cervix (2,3).

The first meta-analysis published by Cochrane Collaborative Group of 4580 randomized patients (19 randomized trials) suggested that chemo-radiation did show an absolute survival benefit improvement both in progression free and overall survivals by 16% and 12% respectively (p<0.0001). The survivals were significantly better with Cisplatin based concomitant chemo-radiation (p<0.0001). Incidentally, the distant metastasis rates were also significantly lower in chemo-radiation (p<0.0001). However, all these benefits were seen only in early stages. In addition, acute grade 3/4 hematological and gastro-intestinal toxicities were higher with chemo-radiation (additional 8% and 5% respectively). The data was insufficient to report on late toxicity (2).

The second meta-analysis of 9 randomized trials, recently published by the Canadian Group to evaluate only cisplatin based concomitant chemo-radiation confirms the improvement in overall survival (4year survival data) in advanced stages, bulky IB tumors (prior to surgery) and high risk early disease (post-surgery). Although acute grade 3/4 hematological and gastro-intestinal toxicities were higher in chemo-radiation, they were short-lived, with only 2 deaths and the remaining resolved with medical treatment. There was no significant increase in the late toxicity from the data available.

Both the Cochrane and Canadian meta-analysis have to a large extent tried to address the role of concomitant chemo-radiation, but Carcinoma Cervix Stage III accounted for only 30-35% and moreover evaluation with optimal radiation schedules and comparison of late toxicities still remains unanswered. What is more important is that the cisplatin is relatively inexpensive and is available worldwide. This means that cisplatin-based chemo-radiation is affordable in the developing countries where carcinoma cervix still forms the major cancer. However, the role of chemo-radiation in Carcinoma Cervix Stage IIIB in a developing countries including India still remains unexplored. We propose this randomized study to evaluate the role and benefit of chemo-radiation in-patients with cervical cancer.