The application of operative laparoscopy to gynecologic oncology

The application of operative laparoscopy to patients with gynecologic malignancy is in its infancy, but promising findings have been demonstrated for surgical end staging after cytotoxic therapy for ovarian cancer, laparoscopic lymph node sampling for cervical cancer, and laparoscopic staging, vaginal hysterectomy and adnexectomy for corpus cancer. The most significant difficulty in integrating operative laparoscopy with gynecologic oncology, at this time, is the lack of controlled studies to demonstrate the ability of endoscopy to improve the contemporary management of these diseases. Further study will be necessary by subspecialists in gynecologic oncology to demonstrate the proper application of these new techniques.