Effectiveness of postoperative radiotherapy excluding the common iliac lymph nodes in patients with node-negative cervical carcinoma

Background: to evaluate whether excluding the common iliac lymph nodes from the clinical target volume (ctv) during radiotherapy is effective in node-negative patients after cervical cancer surgery. materials and methods: between january 2014 and december 2017, 29 patients who underwent radiotherapy after curative surgery for cervical carcinoma were included in this study. we included 19 and 10 patients in the ctv group with common iliac lymph nodes (ctvl) and those without (ctvs), respectively. we retrospectively investigated the correlation among ctv, treatment outcome, and adverse events. results: the median follow-up period was 30.4 (range, 2–55) months. the 3-year overall survival (os) and progression-free survival (pfs) rates of the ctvl group were 95.0% and 85.0%, respectively, and those of the ctvs group were 100% and 88.9%, respectively. the 3-year os and pfs rates were not significantly different between both groups (log-rank; p=0.414 and 0.657, respectively). three ctvl patients and 1 ctvs patient had recurrences. however, there was no significant difference in the recurrence rate between both groups (p=1.0). conclusion: ctv excluding the common iliac lymph nodes in postoperative radiotherapy may be effective in patients with node-negative postoperative cervical cancer.