A prospective randomised study on comparison of weekly versus 3 weekly cisplatin chemotherapy as an adjunct to radiotherapy in treatment of carcinoma of the uterine cervix

Abstract

Background: The present study attempted to compare concurrent weekly and three weekly cisplatin with radiotherapy in locally advanced cervical cancer. Methods: This prospective randomised study was conducted in 40 patients with locally advanced cervical cancer randomised into 2 arms. Arm A patients received external beam Radiotherapy (EBRT) to pelvis with concurrent weekly cisplatin at dose of 40 mg/m2 and arm B patients received EBRT to pelvis with concurrent cisplatin at dose of 75 mg/m2 three weekly followed by brachytherapy. Acute haematological, gastrointestinal (GI) and genitourinary toxicities and response rates were assessed. Results: All the patient and disease characters were comparable in both arms. There was no significant difference in both arms in terms of upper GI toxicity (75% Vs 80%; P = 0.208), haematological (25% Vs 10%; P = 0.195) and nephrotoxicity (10% Vs 25%; P = 0.212). Compliance to chemoradiation was better in three weekly cisplatin arm but not statistically significant. After a median follow up of 12 months, tumor response rates in both arms were almost similar (85% Vs 90%; P = 0.128). Conclusions: Our observations suggest that either concurrent weekly or three weekly cisplatin chemoradiation is equally effective in treatment of cervical cancer. However randomised trials with larger sample sizes and longer duration of follow up are required.

Keywords

• 3 weekly cisplatin
• concurrent chemoradiation
• locally advanced cervical cancer