OBJECTIVETo investigate the potential role of preoperative adjuvant chemotherapy on early stage cervical squamous carcinoma with bulky tumor.

METHODSOne hundred and forty-five patients with cervical squamous cancer stages Ib-IIa were investigated, among which 17 patients with bulky tumors (> or = 4 cm) were managed by cisplatin-based chemotherapy for 1-2 courses followed by radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy (BC group). The change of tumor size, pelvic lymph nodes metastasis, cervical wall invasion, the involvement of surgical specimen margin, and the blood loss during operation were assessed after operation and compared with those in 51 patients with bulky tumors (BN group) and 77 patients with small local tumors (S group) who underwent surgery directly.

RESULTS(1) The tumor size of 17 patients in BC group were decreased in various degrees after chemotherapy, with 13 patients of clinical effectiveness (76.47%). And the responsiveness pertained to neither histological differentiation nor size of local tumors. (2) Post-operative histology has showed that patients in BC and BN group have higher incidence of lymph node metastasis and deep cervical infiltration (5/68 and 3/68, respectively) than in S group (1/77 and 1/77, respectively) while with no statistical significance. (3) Blood loss during operation in BC group was less than BN and S group. (4) Seventeen patients, including those underwent surgeries of vaginal prolongation and/or ovarian transposition, appeared disease-free survival within the follow-up time.

CONCLUSIONSMost of patients with bulky early stage cervical squamous carcinoma are sensitive to cisplatin-based chemotherapy, which could greatly reduce local tumor size and in turn facilitate the following operation by well controlling blood loss.