The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of primary tumor volume and uterine corpus invasion assessed by MRI in stage II uterine cervical cancer patients treated by concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Fifty-two patients diagnosed with stage II cervical carcinoma were entered into the study. The tumor volume was calculated by the equation (Volume=widthXlengthXheightXpi/6) as an ellipsoid approximation. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the prognostic factors for overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), pelvic control (PC), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS).

The 5-year OS, DFS, PC, and DMFS rates were 65.8%, 59.3%, 72.6%, and 79.9%, respectively. The average volume of primary cervical tumor on MRI was 29.5 ml (5-109) and volume was not correlated with stage (p=0.180). Corpus invasion was exhibited in 50.0% and 93.8% of patients with small tumor volume (<30 ml) and large tumor volume (> or =30 ml), respectively; and strongly correlated with tumor volume (p<0.001). By univariate analyses, larger clinical tumor diameter (p=0.031), positive pelvic lymph node (p=0.033), uterine corpus invasion (p=0.045), and larger tumor volume (p=0.003) showed a statistically significantly relation to worse survival. In multivariate analyses, dividing patients according to whether the tumor volume was more or less than 30 ml predicted OS (p=0.048) and uterine corpus invasion also predicted DFS (p=0.042).

Tumor volume and uterine corpus invasion determined by pre-treatment MRI examinations were significant prognostic factors for patients with invasive cervical carcinoma treated with concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy.