PRIMARY NEUROENDOCRINE CARCINOMA OF THE CERVIX: RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22159/ijcpr.2025v17i1.6046Keywords:
Neuroendocrine carcinoma, NECC, Small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma, Cervical cancer, ChemotherapyAbstract
Objective: Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix is a rare variant of cervical carcinoma with a poorer prognosis. There is no standard treatment for this variant of cervical carcinoma. Due to the rarity of this malignancy, the management of NECC is difficult and associated with uncertainty. An interdisciplinary approach is necessary because most studies investigating the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors have been performed in patients with tumors in organs other than the cervix, mostly the lung and pancreas.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of 32 patients diagnosed by biopsy with neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix was done. This study was carried out at Adyar Cancer Institute Chennai. All stage I patients underwent surgery followed by chemotherapy. All stage II and III patients underwent chemoradiotherapy. All stage IV patients underwent palliative chemotherapy. Disease-free survival and overall survival were seen.
Results: Overall, while the mean survival time decreases as the disease progresses from Stage I to Stage IV, the variability (SD) is highest in the early stages (I and II) and relatively lower in the advanced stages (III and IV), though the differences in survival times between the stages were not statistically significant.
Conclusion: We found that NECC is a rare form of cervical cancer with a poor prognosis. Due to the small number of cases and the retrospective nature of this analysis, conclusions are limited, but multimodality treatment with radical surgery and adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy with etoposide and cisplatin is the mainstay of treatment for early-stage disease while combined chemoradiotherapy and chemotherapy are appropriate for women with locally advanced or recurrent NECC.
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