Objective: To evaluate the prognostic value of conversion of high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) status after treatment for cervical cancer. Methods: A total of 112 cervical cancer patients with HR-HPV positivity without distant metastasis treated with surgery or radical concurrent radiochemotherapy were enrolled. HR-HPV status was analyzed before and after treatment and at the time point of recurrence or metastasis. Log-rank tests and Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the association between conversion of HR-HPV status after treatment and survival. Results: Eighty-four (75%) patients had negative conversion HR-HPV (ncHR-HPV) after treatment and twenty-eight (25%) were persistent positive HR-HPV (ppHR-HPV). The negative conversion rate was 75.8% in patients who received surgical treatment and 71.4% in patients who received radical concurrent radiochemotherapy. There was no significant difference between the two groups (χ 2 =0.000, P=1.000). There was no significant correlation between HR-HPV conversion after treatment with age (χ 2 =0.616, P=0.252), FIGO stage (χ 2 =0.051, P=0.823) and pathological type (χ 2 =0.000, P=1.000). Univariate analysis showed that treatment regimen and ncHR-HPV was closely related to progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of cervical cancer patients. Multivariate COX regression model showed that treatment regimen (HR=3.57, 95% CI: 1.57-8.11, P=0.002) and ncHR-HPV (HR=5.14, 95% CI: 2.32-11.46, P<0.001) were independent prognostic factors for PFS, while only ncHR-HPV (HR=12.56, 95% CI: 3.54-44.65, P<0.001) was an independent prognostic factor for OS. The presence of ppHR-HPV after treatment (χ 2 =14.827, P<0.001) was associated with recurrence and metastasis. Eleven of the patients with ncHR-HPV after treatment had recurrence or metastasis, and HPV reinfection was not detected in any of them. Conclusion: ncHR-HPV after treatment in cervical cancer patients indicated better PFS and OS, while ppHR-HPV indicated worse prognosis and high risk of recurrence or metastasis. For patients with ncHR-HPV after treatment, continued HPV screening may not predict recurrence or metastasis. This study suggested that HR-HPV monitoring is necessary for ppHR-HPV patients after treatment but may not be for ncHR-HPV patients. However, further large and multi-center prospective studies should be performed to confirm these findings.
Positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging are two most important imaging tools for evaluating cervical cancer in clinic. They have improved the accuracy of tumor staging and prognosis predicting in a large part. PET/CT is superior for lymph node (LN) status and metastasis to other imaging modalities. And it could differ among tumor types and grades according to maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax). MRI is not sensitive to LN metastasis, but it shares the advantage of therapeutic response and recurrence evaluation with PET/CT. Recently, emerging functional imaging modality Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has been showing its superiority on evaluation of cervical carcinoma as well. This article describes both advantages and limitations of MR imaging and PET/CT in evaluating cervical cancer, and reviews the current role of imaging techniques mentioned above.
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