Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the ratio of metastatic and removed lymph nodes (RPL) and the number of metastatic lymph nodes (MLNs) in predicting postoperative survival for International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage IA2 to IIA cervical cancer after radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy (RHPL).

Methods A retrospective study was conducted in which 120 patients with lymph node metastasis who underwent RHPL for cervical cancer from 2000 to 2006 was analyzed to identify the prognostic indicators by using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard methods.

Results Of 588 patients with cervical cancer who underwent RHPL, the 5-year survival rate (YSR) of 120 with lymph node metastasis was much lower than that of 468 without lymph node metastasis (22.4% vs 84.4%, P < 0.001). By cut-point survival analysis, RPL cutoff was designed as 10%, with the 5-YSR of 42.9% and 11.8%, and MLN count cutoffs were designed as 1 and 5, with the 5-YSR of 62.5%, 20.8%, and 7.8%, respectively. With univariate analysis, increasing RPL and MLN counts were associated with a poorer survival in women with node metastasis cervical cancers. Stage, histologic grade, RPL, and MLN count were significant independent prognostic factors for survival in a multivariate Cox proportional hazard model. In addition, RPL was verified superior to MLN count in prognostic evaluation for patients with IA2 to IIA cervical cancer after RHPL because the hazard ratio of RPL (3.195) was higher than that of MLN count (1.578).

Conclusions The RPL and MLN count may be used as the independent prognostic parameters in patients with cervical cancer with lymph node metastasis after RHPL. Comparison of the superiority of RPL and MLN count for better predicting the survival of patients with cervical cancer deserves to be investigated further.