Management of Stage IIB Cervical Cancer: an Overview of the Current Evidence

To review and discuss the present evidence of surgery- and radiation-based treatment strategies for stage IIB cervical cancer. Recently, two randomized controlled trials compared the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical hysterectomy (NACT + RH) with that of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for stage IB3–IIB cervical cancer. When these studies were combined (N = 1259), NACT + RH was associated with a shorter disease-free survival [hazard ratio (HR) 1.36, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.13–1.64], but with a similar overall survival (HR 1.11, 95% CI 0.90–1.36) when compared with the findings for CCRT. Stage-specific analysis for stage IIB cervical cancer demonstrated that disease-free survival was significantly worse with NACT + RH than with CCRT (HR 1.90, 95% CI 1.25–2.89); however, no significant difference was observed for stage IB3–IIA cervical cancer. Based on the results of recent level I evidence, the standard treatment for stage IIB cervical cancer remains CCRT.