Objective To systematically review the prognostic value of perineural invasion (PNI) for patients with early-stage cervical cancer. Methods We searched PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 10, 2016), CNKI, WanFang Data, CBM and VIP databases to collect case-control studies about prognostic value of PNI in cervical cancer from inception to October, 2016. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 software. Results Seven case-control studies from eight articles involving 1 218 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: (1) On Cox's model multivariate analysis, PNI was not identified as an independent risk factor for disease free survival (DFS) (HR=0.73, 95%CI 0.33 to 1.58,P=0.42) or overall survival (OS) (HR=0.89, 95%CI 0.41 to 1.94,P=0.77) with no significant difference; (2) On Kaplan-Meier-curves, DFS (HR=1.86, 95%CI 1.20 to 2.88,P=0.006) and OS (HR=2.43, 95%CI 1.63 to 3.62,P<0.000 1) were both significantly decreased in patients with PNI positive group. Conclusion PNI represents a decreasing disease-free survival and overall survival in patients with early-stage cervical cancer, and is one of the poor prognosis factors which be informed management decisions regarding adjuvant therapy. However, there is no evidence that PNI is an independent factor affecting the prognosis. In view of the limitation of the studies, a large sample prospective controlled trial is warranted to verify the above conclusion.

Citation： LONG Ying, YAO Desheng, Wei Yousheng. The prognostic significance of perineural invasion in early-stage cervical cancer: a meta-analysis. Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 2017, 17(3): 334-339. doi: 10.7507/1672-2531.201611046 Copy