Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of cervical cancer with different histological types: A population-based cohort study

Objective The prognostic impact and treatment responses among cervical cancer patients with different histological types remains inconclusive. To determine the prognostic effects of different histologic types, we identified 39,088 patients with a diagnosis of cervical cancer between 2004 and 2016 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. Methods Variables related to the prognosis of cervical cancer were evaluated using log-rank method and univariate/multivariate Cox models before and after propensity score matching. Result Of the 36,310 patients, Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was the most common histological type (n = 27,043, 74.5%), followed by adenocarcinoma (AC, n = 7755, 21.4%) and adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC, n = 1512, 4.1%). Compared to SCC patients, patients with AC (HR = 1.14, 95%CI = 1.09–1.20, P < 0.01) and ASC (HR = 1.28, 95%CI = 1.18–1.40, P < 0.01) showed significantly poorer prognosis. Subgroup analyses indicated that the differences in prognosis between AC and SCC were only observed in stage II and III patients (P < 0.01). In patients with concurrent chemoradiotherapy, survival rates of patients with AC were significantly worse compared with similar patients with SCC (HR = 1.14, 95%CI = 1.03–1.27; P < 0.01). Conclusion The prognostic impact of histologic types among patients with cervical cancer depends on tumor stages and therapeutic approaches. Tailored treatment and follow-up planning need to be developed across patients with different histological types and stages.