with pelvic lymph node dissection. The study group was composed of 196 lymph node negative patients. Pathology slides were reviewed and multivariate analysis 1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Acperformed to identify independent prognostic factors. ademic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
RESULTS.The recurrence rate in the study group was 7.7%. In multivariate analysis, the following factors were identified as independent risk factors for recurrence: 2 Department of Pathology, Academic Medical adenocarcinoma (P Å 0.003), depth of invasion as a fraction of tumor penetration Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, of the cervical stroma (P Å 0.01), and an extensive stromal inflammatory cell The Netherlands.infiltrate (P Å 0.04). Based on these factors, the following risk groups were identi- patterns for these patients showed a predominance of pelvic recurrences.CONCLUSIONS. This study showed that among patients with Stage IB and IIA cervical carcinoma and negative pelvic lymph nodes, a subset with a significant risk for recurrence could be identified. Because the majority of recurrences in the lymph node negative group were pelvic recurrences, the value of adjuvant radiotherapy as a treatment for selected lymph node negative patients should be evaluated in a prospective study.