New strategies and advances in the management of cervical carcinoma

Carcinoma of the cervix is still common female cancer in Taiwan. A large portion of patients die of the disease in spite of various kinds of therapies and even the combination of multi-modality treatment.

The current review includes a comprehensive review of the literature. Many new strategies and advanced in the management of cervical carcinoma have been the subject of this intense study and include assisted systems to improve sensitivity and specificity of Pap smear, human papillomavirus (HPV), and its vaccination, operation, radiation, chemotherapy, and combination of these strategies. Because of the constant failure rate, a systemic and critical review of the disease and management should be considered.

With improvement of detection rate of pre-invasive cancer and popularity of screening protocol, the prevalence rate of cervical carcinoma decreases progressively. However, although new strategies in managing cervical carcinoma focus on combination therapy, the life quality and survival rate of these patients with cervical carcinoma only show beneficial in certain group patients.

As to the complexity of both disease nature and various combinations in the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer, comprehensive quality control programs and large prospective multicenter trials are mandatory for establishing the "standard of care" adhered to the principles of evidence-based medicine.