Surgery for early stage cervical cancer: how radical should it be?

Less radical or non radical surgery for early-stage cervical cancer has been proposed to reduce morbidity while maintaining oncologic outcomes. Given that a standardized approach to conservative surgery is not yet available, we have summarized the literature on less radical surgery to better inform clinical practice.

MEDLINE R and MEDLINE in-process and non-indexed citations were searched from inception to April 14, 2013 to identify all English-language articles evaluating less-radical or non radical surgery for invasive cervical carcinoma. Articles including patients with squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous carcinoma were included and a narrative review of the literature is presented.

Radical surgery is associated with significant adverse effects in terms of urinary function, sexual function, and body image. Radical trachelectomy is an accepted fertility-sparing option, but still leads to morbidity from parametrectomy. The importance of the parametrectomy in patients with small early-stage tumors has been questioned recently, and many studies have found simple hysterectomy and simple trachelectomy can be safe in appropriately selected patients. Cone biopsy may be a fertility-sparing option in those patients with a very low risk of parametrial involvement. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is also being investigated as a method to reduce the need for radical surgery. Sentinel lymph node biopsy is discussed as a method to reduce the morbidity while increasing the sensitivity of pelvic lymph node assessment in women with early cervical cancers. Finally, the treatment of early adenocarcinoma is addressed.

It appears many women with early-stage cervical cancer can be treated less radically than has been done in the past. Large prospective trials are underway to further define candidates for less-radical surgery.