The Effect of Radiotherapy on Early-Stage Cervical Cancer: A Systematic Review

Background & Objective: Cervical cancer is one of the most common types of cancer among women worldwide. Management of cervical cancer varies from chemotherapy, radiotherapy, to surgery, depending on the stage of cancer. In early-stage cervical cancer, one of the treatments performed is surgery with a combination of radiotherapy. Therefore, the present study was conducted with aim to determine the effect of radiotherapy on the management of early-stage cervical cancer.Materials & Methods: This systematic review study was conducted using search in databases of PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science Direct. The relevant articles written in English related to radiotherapy for the treatment or management of early-stage cervical cancer published within the past ten years (۲۰۱۴-۲۰۲۴) were selected.Results: After screening, ۲۸ articles were finally included in the study. The radiotherapy group had lower Progression-Free Survival (PFS) and Overall Survival (OS) than the chemotherapy and combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy groups. In addition, adjuvant radiotherapy was associated with significantly better Recurrence-Free Survival (RFS) than no further treatment after surgery. Postoperative radiotherapy in patients with early-stage (IB-IIA) cervical cancer with negative nodes and intermediate risk factors only reduces the incidence of local-regional recurrence. Tumor size can also affect the success of radiotherapy. The results of this study showed that larger tumor sizes experienced better survival with radiotherapy compared to surgery.Conclusion: Radiotherapy has a positive effect in the management of early-stage cervical cancer.

کلیدواژه ها:

Effect ، Radiotherapy ، cervical cancer ، early stage