Unusual risk factors for lymph node metastasis in cancer of the uterine cervix

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the variables associated with pelvic lymph node metastasis in patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix at stages IB and IIA. METHODS: The study was carried out with 289 patients with invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix (IB and IIA) who underwent radical surgery, admitted to the Gynecology Department of the Treatment and Research Center of the Hospital do Câncer A. C. Camargo, between 1980 and 1999. Data were collected from patient's records and from review of the histological sections from the uterine cervices and the lymph nodes, including sociodemographic data (age at diagnosis, skin color), clinical data (disease stage, preoperative hemoglobin level, body mass index) and histopathological data (histological type, histological grade, blood and/or lymphatic capillary embolization, perineural invasion, depth of tumor invasion into cervical stroma, intensity of inflammatory reaction in the uterine cervix, tumor necrosis, tumor size, invasion of the lateral cervical ligaments and uterine body, and lymph node status). Associations between lymph node metastasis and the different variables were evaluated by means of the chi-square test, Fisher's exact test and multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: Pelvic lymph node metastasis was found in 65 patients (22.5%). The following risk factors for lymph node metastasis were identified by multivariate analysis: hemoglobin level <10.0 g% (OR = 3.6; 95% CI: 1.210.7), tumor invasion of the middle third (OR = 3.3; 95% CI: 1.110.7) and deep third of the uterine cervix (OR = 5.4; 95% CI: 1.717.3), absent or slight inflammatory reaction in the uterine cervix (OR = 2.4; 95% CI: 1.15.2) and keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma (OR = 3.3; 95% CI: 1.47.6). CONCLUSIONS: This study identified four risk factors for pelvic lymph node metastasis in patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix at stages IB and IIA. Of these, three are not usually described in literature as predictive variables for lymph node metastasis (preoperative anemia, absent or slight inflammatory reaction and keratinizing of squamous cell carcinoma).

Uterine cervical neoplasms; Lymphatic metastases; Lymph nodes; Anemia; Inflammation