Abstract
Locally advanced stage cervical cancer diagnosed during pregnancy is a clinical challenge and requires skill in balancing maternal management, fetal care, and oncological treatment. Cisplatin has been routinely used as a first line agent for neoadjuvant chemotherapy in this situation, even though it has also recently been associated with fetal hearing loss. We report a case of stage IB3 cervical cancer diagnosed at 17 gestational weeks successfully treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy using carboplatin and paclitaxel during pregnancy. Carboplatin is a valid alternative to cisplatin for advanced stage cervical carcinoma in a pregnant patient, in particular in view of the neonatal complications (primarily ototoxicity) that are associated with in utero cisplatin exposure.
Introduction
Treatment of cervical cancer during pregnancy is still a debated issue in clinical practice. During early gestation, diagnosing locally advanced stage cervical cancer (LASCC) implies discussing termination of pregnancy (TOP) to provide the patient with a prompt treatment and therefore the best chances of survival. A difficult turn-point arises when the patient is fully committed to pregnancy and/or LASCC is diagnosed during the second trimester of pregnancy. The immaturity of the fetus would require prolongation of the gestation to allow for a good neonatal outcome, but this would also negatively correlate with maternal prognosis. 1
For patients with stage IB 2 onward, concurrent chemo-radiation is currently the standard of care; neoadjuvant chemotherapy has been explored in patients with early disease (IB—IIA) before surgery or radiation.2,3 This has also been explored by a Cochrane review that aimed to assess the effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in LASCC compared with planned surgery alone, which concluded that NACT improves overall survival and progression-free survival in the context of clinical trials. 4
Platinum compounds are among the most commonly used agents for gynecologic cancers. In recent years, increasing data have been published regarding the use of chemotherapy (CT) during the second and third trimesters of gestation supporting the use of NACT in pregnancy for patients with a stage IB1 tumor and above. NACT is safe for the exposed fetal population; certain agents can therefore be offered to the pregnant patient and surgery can be postponed after delivery. Carboplatin, usually administered in association with paclitaxel, has been extensively used to treat epithelial ovarian cancer in pregnant patients, but cisplatin and paclitaxel remain the CT agents of choice in treating LASCC—this being the case in pregnant patients as well. In fact, there are no data from large randomized trials that provide indications on treatment schedules for LASCC during pregnancy.1,5–8
A recent randomized phase III trial demonstrated (for the first time) statistically significant noninferiority in terms of overall survival (OS) of paclitaxel and carboplatin-based regimens for metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer over conventional paclitaxel and cisplatin (in patients with a history of platinum administration). In this randomized phase III trial, median OS was 18.3 months with paclitaxel and cisplatin versus 17.5 months with paclitaxel and carboplatin. Carboplatin causes a milder degree of nephropathy (not requiring IV fluids), less nausea/vomiting, and a lower incidence of reported neuropathies. 7
Furthermore, an updated systematic review and meta-analysis 8 on cervical carcinoma during pregnancy highlighted cases of severe hearing loss 9 after in utero exposure to cisplatin. Another recent multicenter matched cohort study, however, emphasized the paucity of literature-reported cases of cervical cancer treated with carboplatin during pregnancy and concluded thus that the ideal platinum-based chemotherapeutic agent to be recommended during pregnancy is still to be determined. 10
We report a case of a squamous cell LASCC diagnosed in a patient who was 17 weeks pregnant. We offered carboplatin CT in light of the recent reports of severe hearing loss following in utero cisplatin (associated with paclitaxel) treatment during pregnancy. 9 To our knowledge, there are only two other cases reported in the literature of cervical cancer in pregnancy undergoing treatment with this specific agent.11,12
Case Report
A 31-year-old gravida 2 para 1 was referred to the Maternal Medicine Unit of our Institute due to stage IB3 cervical cancer diagnosed at 17/40 gestational weeks. 13 On admission, she underwent colposcopy, and a cervical biopsy was performed. Histology confirmed a human papilloma virus (HPV)-correlated grade 2 squamocellular carcinoma.
Gadolinium-free magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) documented a solid lesion (45 × 32 × 50 mm) developing from the posterior portion of the uterine cervix to the posterior vaginal fornix (stage IB3). No regional lymph node engagement was documented. No vaginal wall involvement was detected either on clinical examination or during colposcopy.
Surgery would have forbidden the patient from continuing her pregnancy; the case was carefully discussed in a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting (including obstetricians, neonatologists, gynecological oncologists, and psychologists). After extensive patient counseling a plan was made for her to undergo NACT with carboplatin area under the curve = 5 and paclitaxel 175 mg/mq. The latter was reduced by 20% before the third cycle due to grade 2 persistent thrombocytopenia (64 × 103/mL). 14 Delivery was planned after four NACT cycles in order for the patient to undergo surgery after 3–4 weeks from the last NACT to avoid vanquishing the beneficial NACT effects; therefore, at 29 gestational weeks the last NACT infusion during pregnancy was administered. As per international recommendations, an elective C-section (ELCS) 1 was planned. To choose the best timing for hysterectomy, another pelvic MRI was performed just before delivery and showed a hardly identifiable lesion. This allowed the physicians involved in multidisciplinary patient care to plan the hysterectomy after uterine involution was achieved, thus reducing PPH (postpartum hemorrhage) risk and ureter damage linked to peri-ELCS hysterectomy. Given the increased IUGR risk that NACT during pregnancy can lead to, two-weekly growth scans were performed through pregnancy. 1 Fetal growth was unremarkable, and fetal and maternal Doppler readings were always within normal limits.
Fetal lung maturity was achieved, and an uncomplicated ELCS was performed at 32 weeks. A healthy female was born, showing good adaptation (APGAR score 7/10, umbilical cord pH 7.34) and weighing 1845 g (46th percentile according to WHO growth curves). The baby suffered some mild complications related to prematurity such as neonatal jaundice, NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis) stage IIA, and very mild respiratory distress (requiring continuous positive airway pressure—CPAP—for 3 days) and was discharged from hospital 40 days after birth.
Surgery was followed by another two CT cycles. The pathology report described a well-differentiated squamocellular cervical carcinoma (1.5 cm wide) with disease-free surgical margins and disease-free parametrial tissue and lymph nodes. The patient is currently undergoing regular post-treatment follow-up, but no evidence of recurrence has been found after 26 months of follow-up.
The patient's daughter is a healthy 22-month old, and there are no current complaints on her behalf.
Discussion and Review of the Literature
When diagnosed during pregnancy, cervical cancer in clinical stages that would normally warrant for radical hysterectomy/radiotherapy as a cardinal step for treatment is a challenging clinical situation. The triad of the pregnant patient, the developing fetus, and cancer compose is a complex entity that must be handled with extreme care. It is of paramount importance to assess the viability of the pregnancy, the fetal well-being, and the commitment that the patient manifests with regard to the developing fetus. A MDT composed of an obstetrician, an onco-gynecologist, a psychologist, and a neonatologist should address the patient's concerns and make clinical decisions in light of these circumstances. There may be very challenging situations: patients may be unwilling to undergo any form of treatment that might harm the developing fetus, to the point of postponing all possible therapies to after the delivery. In contrast, patients may not feel comfortable in handling both pregnancy and cancer diagnosis and, where possible, may wish to opt for TOP. It is therefore of fundamental importance that before any decision is made regarding treatment, the patient is fully counseled regarding her options.
CT has been shown to be relatively safe when used after the 14th week of gestation and before 3 weeks before delivery1,15—this is due to the knowledge we have acquired over the last 10 years of the possible adverse pregnancy outcomes that CT may cause during the fetal developmental phases of gastrulation and organogenesis. It is also well-established that delivery should be planned after at least 3 weeks from the last CT cycle as this prevents neonatal myelosuppression and maternal hematologic nadir and allows for the placenta to metabolize the circulating cytotoxic molecules. Given this background knowledge, after careful MDT discussion, the therapeutic strategy offered to the patient was one that was also suggested by Cibula et al. in the recent 2018 ESGO guidelines on the management of patients with cervical cancer 16 ; NACT until fetal maturity and beginning of cancer specific treatment immediately after delivery by ELCS.
It is important to remember that platinum-based CT has been associated with small for gestational age fetuses, 17 but there have been no reports of fetal/neonatal complications secondary to carboplatin exposure specifically. There is thus an indication to serial monitoring of fetal growth in these patients.
When considering the dose of the CT agent, the clinician might feel the urge to alter the medication dose in view of the multiple physiological changes that pregnancy implies (decrease in plasma drug exposure, decrease in peak plasma concentration, and increase in clearance and distribution volume); however, these pharmacokinetic parameters were extensively explored by Van Calsteren and coworkers in a baboon model. 15 Intuitively, the aforementioned changes should affect the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of CT—however, no dose variations are to be made during pregnancy as there is no reported survival difference between women with cancer treatment during pregnancy and stage-matched nonpregnant women 18 ; CT dosages are based on actual pregnant patients' biometric details. With regards to the choice of the molecule, although it is well-established that platinum derivatives—more specifically cisplatin—are a standard CT regimen for treatment of cervical cancer in patients, in view of the reports of hearing loss in children born from women undergoing cisplatin during pregnancy, we chose to use carboplatin instead. 9
While there are quite a few case series/reports and reviews reporting the use of platinum derivatives for NACT in cervical cancer during pregnancy,12,19 they nearly all focus on the use of cisplatin rather that carboplatin for this purpose. In 2013 Zagouri performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of 47 pregnant patients treated with cisplatin and only 1 case of carboplatin; in 2015, Kohler described 20 cases treated with cisplatin monotherapy and, once again, only one case with carboplatin. Therefore, there are only two previous reports of using carboplatin with paclitaxel for NACT of LASCC during pregnancy.11,12 This trend is consistent with reassuring reports of cisplatin use during pregnancy that have been published from the mid 90s 19 ; carboplatin, however, has been reported as being the safest platinum derivative to be used in pregnancy. 20
The reported case is therefore among the first describing a pregnant patient with LASCC treated with carboplatin and paclitaxel. We advocate that carboplatin is a valid alternative to cisplatin for LASCC in a pregnant patient, in particular in view of the neonatal complications (primarily ototoxicity) that are associated with in utero cisplatin exposure. 9
Footnotes
Author Disclosure Statement
No competing financial interests exist.
Funding Information
No funding was received for this article.