In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Dr. Félix Boria to discuss the validation of ESGO quality indicators for cervical cancer. Mr. Boria is an attending physician of the gynecologic oncology division at the University of Navarra (Madrid, Spain) under the mentorship of Dr. Luis Chiva. He is currently finishing his PhD at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid about PET/CT and advanced ovarian cancer.

Highlights:

- Women who were operated on centers with high compliance of quality indicators had significant lower risk of relapse (HR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.25 to 0.61; p<0.001). The association remained significant after further adjustment for conization, surgical approach and use of manipulator and for adjuvant therapy.

- High compliance centers performed more open surgeries (58.4% vs 36.7%, p<0.01), more cone biopsies (45.4% vs 30.0%, p<0.01), lower use of a uterine manipulator (15.5% vs 31.7%, p<0.01), lower use of adjuvant treatment (40.2% vs 48.4%, p=0.01).

- The rate of adjuvant treatment in Europe is surprisingly high, especially in low compliance centers (48%). Future investigations should try to address if we are overtreating patients with cervical cancer.