The prognostic implications of anaemia in the outcome of patients with early stages of uterine cervix carcinoma

Abstract

 We studied the prognostic value of anaemia in the evolution of patients with early stages of uterine cervix cancer and treated with radical surgery. An observational study of 114 patients treated for cervical cancer at the ”La Fe” Maternity Hospital in Valencia (Spain) during the period 1971 to 1989. Survival analyses were carried out whereby both recurrence and mortality rates were considered. The level of haemoglobin influences the prognosis of the patients in the study presented, and explains a variation in the disease-free interval in correlation with that of tumour size. However, its influence on the survival interval proved to be somewhat less. Its predictive value is not diminished when associated with other important factors regarding the influence on patient evolution and is seen to be a protector variable against recurrence. Patients with haemoglobin levels of less than 13 gr/dl have a less favourable prognosis and this prognosis worsens still further when levels are lower than 12 gr/dl, which is more frequently the case in patients under 40 years of age and with a greater stromal invasion depth. The influence of haemoglobin levels is equally as important in its influence on prognosis and patient evolution as the volume of the tumour itself. The effect of this variable depends on both the clinical characteristics of the patients and the pathological characteristics of the tumour.