TUMOR HYPOXIA IN PELVIC RECURRENCES OF CERVICAL-CANCER

We have previously demonstrated in primary cancer of the uterine cervi x that tumor hypoxia, as determined polarographically, is strongly ass ociated with clinical malignant progression of the disease, Having app lied a similar methodological approach to investigate loco-regional re lapses, we found a pronounced shift to more hypoxic oxygenation profil es in the recurrent tumors than in the primary tumors. Median pO(2) va lues in 53 pelvic recurrences were significantly lower than the median pO(2) values of 117 primary tumors of comparable sizes (7.1 +/- 1.1 m mHg vs. 12.1 +/- 1.0 mmHg, p = 0.0013), The differences in tumor oxyge nation between primary and recurrent tumors mirrored the differences i n the patients' 5-year survival probabilities. In the cohort of patien ts with pelvic relapses, median tumor pO(2) < 4 mmHg indicated a signi ficantly shorter median survival time as compared to median tumor pO(2 ) greater than or equal to 4 mmHg, Our results further support our the sis that in cervical cancer, tumor hypoxia and clinical aggressiveness in terms of resistance to therapy and tumor dissemination, are interr elated. Int. J. Cancer (Pred. Oncol.) 79:365-369, 1998. (C) 1998 Wiley -Liss, Inc.