Surgical management of recurrent cervical cancer

The majority of patients with recurrent cervical cancer are incurable and treatment is based on the type of primary therapy delivered. Only a very small percentage of the patients with recurrent cervical cancer following primary radiotherapy will have central pelvic recurrences that are amenable to surgical resection and curable by pelvic exenteration. These procedures should be undertaken only after the completion of exhaustive attempts to exclude extrapelvic disease.