Objective: To evaluate whether the use of triweekly combination chemotherapy together with radiation exerts a more beneficial systemic effect than weekly cisplatin chemoradiation in patients with cervical cancer after radical surgery.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients with stage IB1 to stage IIB cervical cancer who had undergone radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection, followed by concurrent adjuvant chemoradiation therapy. The patients were divided into 2 groups: the triweekly combination chemotherapy group and the weekly cisplatin chemotherapy group. We evaluated the survival and adverse effects of the 2 groups.

Results: In total, 201 patients were included. The mean duration of follow-up was 52.2 months. Of the 201 patients, 130 received triweekly combination chemotherapy, and 71 patients received weekly cisplatin chemotherapy as an adjuvant treatment. The 5-year disease-free survival was 82.2% for patients treated with weekly cisplatin chemotherapy and 74.3% for those treated with triweekly combination chemotherapy (P = 0.3929). The 5-year overall survival was 81.4% and 79.3% for the same treatment groups, respectively (P = 0.9833). The overall survival of the patients with stage IIB cervical cancer was marginally higher in the triweekly combination chemotherapy group than in the weekly cisplatin group (P = 0.0582). Leukopenia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, anemia, and hepatopathy were significantly more common in the triweekly combination chemotherapy group.

Conclusions: The weekly cisplatin chemotherapy group experienced the same therapeutic effect as the triweekly combination chemotherapy group but with less toxicity. Therefore, weekly cisplatin chemotherapy is considered the more useful concurrent adjuvant chemoradiation regimen after radical surgery.