The relationship between early and late gastrointestinal complications of radiation therapy for carcinoma of the cervix

In a retrospective analysis of 1,390 consecutive patients with carcinoma of the cervix treated by high dose radiation therapy alone at the Queensland Radium Institute, we report a quantitative relationship between the early and late gastrointestinal complications arising from such treatment. Of these 1,390 patients, 157 (11.3%) experienced early, serious complications. For geographic reasons, it was only possible to evaluate 784 patients for late post-irradiation complications. Twenty-eight (3.6%) developed one or more late bowel complications, which included adhesions, fistulae, strictures, perforation, colitis and vascular occlusion. Factors affecting the relative risk of developing either an early or late complication were analyzed and are discussed. There was an 8.2% incidence of late complications developing in those patients who had experienced early complications, compared with a 3.0% incidence of late complications developing in patients without early complications. Thus, the risk of developing a late complication was greater by a factor of 2.7 in those patients developing an early one ( p < 0.05). However, of the 28 patients developing late complications, 21 (75% ) did not experience a severe acute one.