Background: The role of completion surgery after concurrent radiochemotherapy (CCRC) for advanced cervical cancer remains controversial. Individual predictive factors of CCRC response and survival are mandatory for treatment adaptation and to determine a population who would take interest in completion surgery after CCRC. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of biomarkers to predict the response to CCRC.
Patients and methods: Between 1996 and 2008, in 58 patients with advanced cervical cancer for whom pre-therapeutic cone biopsy was available, we tested several biomarkers (ALDH1, CD44, CD24, IDO, Ki67, P63, CK7, p-Stat3, Foxp3 and IDO).
Results: Residual disease was found in 49.1% of cases (n=26). We found a significant association between progression-free survival and residual disease on completion hysterectomy (p=0.044). Univariate analysis of the different factors showed that negativity for cytokeratin 7 expression was a strong predictor for the presence of residual tumor (p=0.001).
Conclusion: These results are encouraging and CK7 could be used as a predictive factor of response to CCRC.
Keywords: Advanced cervical cancer; CK7; biomarkers; radiochemotherapy; survival.