Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Tumor diathesis (TD) refers to the granular proteinaceous precipitates on the slide surface of cytologic (Pap) smears. Found in the background of smears from some, but not all, invasive carcinoma cases, TD is present in the majority of smears from large cell nonkeratinizing carcinoma. It is more pronounced than keratinizing SCC also is almost always present in small cell carcinoma.  Smears from patients with adenocarcinoma are frequently associated with dense inflammatory and fresh blood exudates and less often there is a recognizable tumor diathesis.

Methods: To determine the prevalence of TD in cervicovaginal smears from patients with uterine cervix carcinoma, cytologic smears and histologic slides of 46 patients with histologically-confirmed uterine cervix carcinoma were reviewed for the presence or absence of TD, red blood cells and neutrophils on cytologic smears, as well as depth of invasion, histologic types and grade of differentiation of tumor on histologic slides.

Results: TD was identified in 28 smears (60.9%), 18 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (62.1%), seven patients with adenocarcinoma (58.3%), two patients with adenosquamous carcinoma (66.7%) and one patient with endometrial carcinoma that involved the uterine cervix. TD was seen in smears from four (33.3%) patients with uterine cervix carcinoma with invasion <5 mm and 17 (65.4%) carcinomas with invasion >5mm. However, some of the patients with invasive carcinoma lacked TD on the cytologic smears. Red blood cells were identified on 16 (34.8%) smears.

Conclusions: Although TD is the hallmark of invasive carcinoma of the cervix on cytological smears, there have been few studies performed on it. We found that tumors with greater depth of invasion and reduced differentiation are associated with TD cytologic smears. TD was absent in some cases, particularly in micro-invasive carcinoma. This study reinforced what has been recognized from other studies.

Background: Carcinoma of the uterine cervix is the sixth most common malignant neoplasm in women. Early stage diagnosis of uterine cervix carcinoma increases the cure rate of disease. Radiotherapy, with or without concurrent chemotherapy, is one of the most effective treatment modality in cervical carcinoma. After radiotherapy, accurate and regular follow-up results in early diagnosis and effective treatment of recurrence. The aim of this study is the assessment of the pathologic characteristics, setting and indications for postoperative radiotherapy and outcome of patients at the last follow-up.

Methods: In this retrospective study, we evaluated 346 cases of cervical carcinoma had received radiotherapy in radiation oncology department of the Cancer Institute of Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from 1995 to 2001.

Results: The age of the study group ranged from 26 to 78 years (mean=50.5, SD=11). Of these patients, 30.4% were in the early stage and 69.6% had advanced stage disease. Squamous cell carcinoma comprised 92.2% of the cases and 6.4% adenocarcinoma. Radical radiotherapy was the most frequent radiotherapy setting and adjuvant radiotherapy (post-op) was the second. A considerable number of patients did not come back for follow-up, and 43.7% were followed for a short time.

Conclusion: Accurate presurgical clinical staging and surgical treatment by an expert gynecologic oncologist can reduce expose the patients to risks of two modality treatments (surgery and radiotherapy). According to our results, patients do not pay enough attention to disease follow-up. An acceptable training plan with emphasis on regular follow-up, is recommended.

Background: Treatment of cervical carcinoma is routinely performed with Low Dose Rate (LDR) brachytherapy, but Brachytherapy in our department is done with Medium Dose Rate (MDR) due to the technical characteristics of the machine available here. Thus we decided to evaluate the results of this treatment in our department in a prospective study.

Methods: Between March 2006 and July 2008, 140 patients with histologic diagnosis of cervical carcinoma referred to Tehran Cancer Institute were treated with external beam radiotherapy (44-64 Gy to whole pelvis) and MDR brachytherapy (8-30 Gy to Point A) with a dose rate of 2.2±0.3 Gy/h.

Results: 121 patients were followed up for a median time of 18 months (range: 9-39 m). There were 11%(6/54) local recurrence for surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy group 25%(16/65) for radical radiotherapy group, and 19%(23/121) for all patients. Rectal and bladder complications incidence for all patients were 10%(12/121) and 13%(16/121) respectively. High grade complication was shown only in one patient in radical radiotherapy group. In this study 3-years disease free survival and overall survival were 73% and 92% respectively, and disease stage (p=0.007) and overall treatment time (p=0.05) were the significant factors affecting disease free survival.

Conclusions: Results of this series suggest that the use of external beam radiotherapy and MDR brachytherapy with about 20% dose reduction in comparison with LDR can be an acceptable technique with regard to local control and complications.