Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy Versus Pelvic Lymphadenectomy in Early-stage Cervical Cancer (PHENIX/CSEM 010)

Overview

The diagnostic value of sentinel lymph node biopsy in early-stage cervical cancer has been well studied. However, there were no randomized controlled study on comparing the long-term outcomes of sentinel lymph node biopsy and conventional procedure. The investigators perform a phase III, randomized controlled trial to determine whether pelvic lymphadenectomy can be replaced by sentinel lymph node biopsy in surgical treatment for patients with early-stage cervical cancer.

This study comprises two parts: PHENIX-I: To compare the outcomes of managements with and without pelvic lymphadenectomy for patients with negative sentinel lymph node; PHENIX-II: To compare the outcomes of managements with and without pelvic lymphadenectomy for patients with positive sentinel lymph node. Patients with newly diagnosed International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IA1 (lymphovascular space involvement), IA2, IB1, and IB2 cervical cancer are eligible for our study. The tumor diameter should be less than 3cm. Sentinel lymph node biopsy will be performed at the beginning of operations. After pathological examination of frozen section, patients will be assigned to PHENIX-I or PHENIX-II study according to their status of sentinel nodes. In both parts of this trail, patients have equal chance to be randomly assigned to experimental arms (radical hysterectomy only) and reference arms (radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy).Adjuvant treatments will be planned according to postoperative pathological factors. The primary objective is disease-free survival at 3 years for PHENIX-I and 2 years for PHENIX-II. The secondary end points are overall survival, long-term outcome of sentinel lymph node biopsy and the quality of life.