Prospect of Laparoscopy in Treating Early Stage Cervical Cancer

Abstract

Cervical cancer is one of the most common malignancies of the female lower genital tract. There is mounting evidence that surgical management of cervical cancer could not only reduce mortality and recurrence, but it could also improve the quality of life of patients, especially if the treatment results of surgery are compared to those of radiation therapy. There is already consensus regarding the treatment of endometrial cancer using laparoscopy, since compared with laparotomy, laparoscopy results in a shorter hospital stay, fewer complications, less pain, and earlier resumption of normal activities. Most importantly, there is no significant difference in 3-year survival and recurrence rate of endometrial cancer with laparoscopy compared with laparotomy. Thus, there is now a trend of using laparoscopy to treat endometrial cancer. Some reports have pointed out that laparoscopic radical hysterectomy would have fewer complications. Our prospective study showed that the intraoperative complication rate from laparoscopy was comparable to that of laparotomy, but the incidence of postoperative complications was less with laparoscopy. No difference was noted in terms of operating time or recurrence rate between these two groups. Regarding blood loss, postoperative recovery, return of bladder function, external appearance of incisions, and gastrointestinal complications during radiation therapy, laparoscopy seems to have the better edge. Laparoscopy appears to be a promising method of managing cervical cancer. Moreover, in our experience, operative laparoscopy is easier in the management of stump cancer and trachelectomy. Thus, gynecologists should realize that laparoscopy will play a much more important role in the management of early stage cervical cancer in the near future.

Keywords

• cervical cancer
• laparoscopy
• stump cancer
• radical trachelectomy
• Lee-Huang portal