Abstract

Twenty-nine patient with advanced cervix cancer were treated with a combination chemotherapy of cisplatin, vincristine, bleomycin, and methotrexate between January, 1987 and December, 1988. 1) Among 19 evaluable patients, 4 patients (20.1%) achieved complete response and 6 patients (31. 6%) achieved partial response, giving an overall response rate of 51.7%. The median duration of remission was 23 weeks in the responders. 2) The median survival of overall patients was 50 7 weeks. The median survival of the responders did not reach the median value during the follow-up period of 15-81 weeks. In contrast, the median survival of the non-responders was 30.7 weeks, which was significantly shorter than that of the responders (p<0.05). 3) The only factor influencing remission rate was the pattem of failure, and the patients with distant metastasis showed higher remission rates (p<0.01). There were no prognostic factors influencing the remission duration. The factors improving survival rates were the early stage at diagnosis (p< 0. 005), the previous history of curative operation (p<0.005), and the presence of distant metastasis (p<0.01). 4) Considerable number of patients experienced toxicities. Among these, leukopenia (50%) and thrombocytopenia (4.7%) were the main hematologic toxicities. Most patients experienced nausea, vomiting, diarrhea (89.49o), stomatitis (26 3%), and alopecia (73.7%). Neurotoxicity due to vincristine or cispatin was found in 36.896 of patients, and 2 patients showed pulmonary fibrosis due to bleomycin toxicity. In conclusion, this regimen (PVBM) seems to be effective in terms of remission rates, but did not show any additional benifits in terms of remission duration or overall survival. In addition, the large number of patients experienced considerable side effects. Based on these findings, further studies are needed to find out the new regimen which is more effective and less toxic for the patients with advanced uterine cervix cancer.

• Keywords: Uterine cervix cancer, Chemotherapy