THE PROGNOSTIC-SIGNIFICANCE OF BETA-HUMAN CHORIONIC-GONADOTROPIN AND ITS METABOLITES IN WOMEN WITH CERVICAL-CARCINOMA

Aims-To examine long term survival of women with primary and recurrent cervical carcinoma in relation to (1) excretion of beta-core (a urina ry metabolite of beta human chorionic gonadotrophin (beta hCG)) and (2 ) beta hCG immunostaining of the tumours, to determine the suitability of these markers for assessing prognosis. Methods-This was a prospect ive observational study undertaken in a gynaecological oncology centre : 57 women with primary cervical cancer and 42 with recurrent disease were recruited between January 1990 and September 1992. Kaplan-Meier s urvival analysis with the log rank test was used to assess survival di fferences with survival rate given per year of follow up. Results-In p rimary disease, the four year survival for the beta-core negative grou p was 79%, compared with 14% for the p-core positive group (p = 0.001) . This was still significant for early stage disease or squamous lesio ns alone. In recurrent disease, beta-core positivity was not prognosti cally significant. Immunohistochemistry was of no prognostic significa nce in either group. Conclusions-beta-core excretion appears to be use ful in assessing prognosis of primary cervical cancer but not of recur rent disease. A large prospective study of urinary beta-core in early stage cervical cancer is needed to determine whether it can be used as an index for modifying treatment.