Abstract

From January 1979 to December 1981, One hundred and sixty-one patients with stage IIIB car- cinoma of the cervix according to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) received radical radiation treatment consisting of external irradiation with intracavitary brachytherapy in our institute. Radiation treatment was delivered in a similar fashion in all patients in terms of the dosage and the technique. Complete response rate of 63.9% and overall 5 year survival rate of 49.6% for stage IIIB carcinoma of cervix were obtained in the study. One hundred and sixty one patients were retrospectively analyzed with respect to two variables: the extent of pelvic wall involvement and the presence of hydronephrosis. The extent of pelve wall involvement proved to be a strong prognostic factor, that is, the patients with unilateral involvement had a 5 year survival rate of 58.7% and bilateral ones of 34.3%;, whereas in those with fixation of pelvic wall involvement (frozen pelvis) it was only 23.5% (p= 0.000). The presence of nonfunctioning kidney or hydronephrosis proved to be statistically insignificant factors as far as the survival rates are concerned (p=0.87). We can, therefore, conclude that subsets of the patient with Stage IIIB cervical cancer with bilateral pelvic wall involvement or pelvic wall fixation carries unfavorable prognostic factors as compare to those of unilateral subset and these should be kept in mind when designing treatment plan.