Cervical conization before primary radical hysterectomy has a protective effect on disease recurrence in early cervical cancer: A two-center matched cohort study (174)

Objectives: Preoperative cervical conization, while reducing the cervical mass size, might decrease the chance of tumor spillage during surgery. This study aimed to ascertain whether cervical conization before primary radical hysterectomy (RH) has a protective effect in patients with early cervical cancer. Methods: We retrospectively identified node-negative, marginnegative, parametria-negative, 2009 FIGO stage IB1 cervical cancer patients who received primary Type C RH at two tertiary institutional hospitals between July 2006 and June 2020. Whether they received preoperative cervical conization or not, patients were divided into conization group (n=144) and control group (n=434). To adjust for confounders, we conducted a 1:1 propensity score matching for histology, surgical approach, lymphovascular space invasion, and cervical mass size (calculated by summing pathologic tumor size on conization and uterine specimens). Then, survival outcomes were compared between the matched groups. Results: Overall, the conization group had less cervical mass size and received minimally invasive surgery (MIS) more frequently (p=0.010) and adjuvant treatment less often (p=0.002) compared to the control group. Of 37 patients who received preoperative conization and had no residual tumor in the uterine specimen, only one (2.7%) recurred during 56.5 months of a median observation period. After matching, the conization group showed significantly better progression-free survival (PFS) than the control group (3-year: 94.2% vs 86.3%; p=0.012), whereas no significant difference in overall survival (OS) was found. Subgroup analysis in the open RH (n=91) revealed that PFS did not differ by preoperative conization (p=0.799). In contrast, in the MIS RH subgroup (n=197), preoperative conization was associated with significantly better PFS (p=0.005). Conclusions: Despite the retrospective design, our matched cohort study suggests that preoperative cervical conization might have a protective effect on disease recurrence in early cervical cancer, especially for those who are planning to undergo MIS RH. Further prospective studies are warranted. Objectives: Preoperative cervical conization, while reducing the cervical mass size, might decrease the chance of tumor spillage during surgery. This study aimed to ascertain whether cervical conization before primary radical hysterectomy (RH) has a protective effect in patients with early cervical cancer. Methods: We retrospectively identified node-negative, marginnegative, parametria-negative, 2009 FIGO stage IB1 cervical cancer patients who received primary Type C RH at two tertiary institutional hospitals between July 2006 and June 2020. Whether they received preoperative cervical conization or not, patients were divided into conization group (n=144) and control group (n=434). To adjust for confounders, we conducted a 1:1 propensity score matching for histology, surgical approach, lymphovascular space invasion, and cervical mass size (calculated by summing pathologic tumor size on conization and uterine specimens). Then, survival outcomes were compared between the matched groups. Results: Overall, the conization group had less cervical mass size and received minimally invasive surgery (MIS) more frequently (p=0.010) and adjuvant treatment less often (p=0.002) compared to the control group. Of 37 patients who received preoperative conization and had no residual tumor in the uterine specimen, only one (2.7%) recurred during 56.5 months of a median observation period. After matching, the conization group showed significantly better progression-free survival (PFS) than the control group (3-year: 94.2% vs 86.3%; p=0.012), whereas no significant difference in overall survival (OS) was found. Subgroup analysis in the open RH (n=91) revealed that PFS did not differ by preoperative conization (p=0.799). In contrast, in the MIS RH subgroup (n=197), preoperative conization was associated with significantly better PFS (p=0.005). Conclusions: Despite the retrospective design, our matched cohort study suggests that preoperative cervical conization might have a protective effect on disease recurrence in early cervical cancer, especially for those who are planning to undergo MIS RH. Further prospective studies are warranted.