RESEARCH Open Access

Postoperative external beam irradiation with and without brachytherapy in pelvic node-positive IB1-IIA2 cervical cancer patients: a retrospective clinical study Lei Li*, XinXin Kou, XiaoJie Feng, MingChuan Zhang, HongTu Chao and LiYing Wang Background: This study assessed the survival outcomes and recurrent patterns in pelvic node-positive IB1-IIA2 cervical cancer patients treated with postoperative external beam irradiation with or without vaginal brachytherapy. Methods: The records of 1149 cervical cancer patients received radical surgery between February 2008 and March 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. 126 stages IB1-IIA2 patients with positive pelvic lymph node (LN) were included and a total of 113 patients who received different postoperative radiation therapy were identified and analyzed. Of the enrolled patients, 55 patients received pelvic external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) without vaginal brachytherapy and 58 patients received pelvic EBRT with vaginal brachytherapy. Treatment-related toxicities were evaluated. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier estimates and statistical significance was determined using the log-rank test