MICROINVASIVE CARCINOMA OF THE CERVIX - AN ANALYSIS OF 31 PATIENTS

A retrospective analysis of 31 patients subjected to radical surgery a nd lyphadenectomy for microinvasive cervical cancer was carried out. T he mean age of the patients at diagnosis was 51.4 years. Twenty-nine o f the patients had depth of invasion of 3 mm or less whereas 5 of them had lymphovascular space invasion. Thus, 24 patients had microinvasiv e cervical cancer according to the SGO (Society of Gynecologic Oncolog y) criteria. While nine patients had minimal stromal invasion (<1 mm) at diagnosis, the remaining 22 patients fulfilled the criteria of FIGO IA2 disease. Most of the patients had grade I disease. With worsening of differentiation lymphovascular space involvement increases from ap proximately 11% (2/18) to 50% (1/2). None of the patients had lymph no de involvement. All patients are living with no evidence of disease wi th a mean survival of 39 months. Current FIGO criteria for microinvasi ve carcinoma permits us to define a subset of patients that can safely be subjected to a more conservative approach.