Carcinoma of the uterine cervix in Saudi Arabia: experience in the management of 164 patients with stage-I & -II disease.

Background: Earlier stages cervical cancer has been customarily treated with radiation therapy, surgery, or combination thereof. We present our experience in the management of stage-I and -II patients in a major cancer center in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Methods: Between 1979 and 1991, 164 patients were treated and closely followed at a tertiary care medical center.

Results: Patients accounted for 0.78 % of all cancer patient referral. More cases with earlier stages (41.3 %) were referred since 1986, compared to a lower referral (26.1%) during the earlier part of the study (p=0.027). Age ranged from 21 to 80 years with a median of 46.5 years. Clinical stages at presentation included Stage-IA (3.0%), IB (28.7%), IIA (11.6%), and IIB (56.7%). Majority (87.2%) had squamous cell carcinoma, while the rest, had adenocarcinoma (9.1%) or other malignancies (3.6%). Among the 143 patients with squamous cell cancer, eighteen had attempted radical resection, 101 were treated with radiation, and 24 had both modalities. For squamous cancer patients, fifty-one (35.7%) had disease relapse either locally (19 cases), distally (23 patients) or both combined (9 patients). The pattern of failure was unrelated to stage of disease, histological diagnosis or the mode of therapy initially administered. The cumulative five and ten year's survival for squamous cancer patients was 68.3% and 57.9% respectively. Better survival was noted for patients with smaller sized tumors, free parametrium, and Stage-I disease. When all factors were considered in the regression model, only the status of parametrial involvement was found to be of significance.

Conclusions: Cervical cancer is relatively rare in Saudi Arabia. With the improvement in health care delivery, more patients were lately seen at earlier stages of disease. With radiation therapy, two thirds of patients survived five years. The extent of parametrial involvement was the best predictor for long term survival.