The long-term outcomes in perimenopausal patients treated for cervical cancer

Introduction. In the coming decades, the population of adults 65 years of age and older will increase significantly. Younger patients between 30 and 40 years of age, who are diagnosed with cervical cancer, have a better prognosis than the older group. The second peak of incidence, involving patients between 60 and 70 years of age, correlates with a poorer prognosis. Material and methods. In our study, we included 360 patients between 40 and 60 years old operated on due to cervical cancer followed by radiochemotherapy. We divided these patients into two groups according to age. The first group was composed of premenopausal patients (aged between 40 and 50 years) and the second of postmenopausal patients (aged between 50 and 60 years), and long-term outcomes (overall survival rates OS) were analysed in both groups of patients. Results. We observed statistically significant differences in the long-term outcomes between the subgroups of patients treated surgically for cervical cancer, and it was better in the premenopausal group of patients. No statistically significant relationship between these two groups of patients as far as clinical features was observed. Conclusion. We found that postmenopausal patients may actually benefit more from having radical surgery. Proving this supports the case for distinguishing geriatric oncology from gynaecological oncology.